Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It seems that the current indicated allocation is the same €9.1 billion that was indicated before the crisis. I have also heard rumours circulating that the Government plans to keep capital expenditure at around the €9 billion mark for the duration of this crisis. That greatly concerns me because we do not know how long that will be. All indications are that the crisis will last for some time. If we assume that it continues for a two- to three-year period, then this provision represents a real cut per capitawhen factoring in inflation and population growth. It is austerity by stealth, under the table or through the back the door. Call it whatever one wants but we have seen it before.

The Minister said that this Government is taking a different approach to this crisis from what was done previously. We saw during the last crisis, especially after 2014, that despite the announcements that austerity was over, it did, in fact, continue, albeit in a sneakier fashion. A recent report from the Halle Institute for Economic Research on the impact of Brexit estimates that more than 700,000 jobs will be at risk in the EU, with Ireland set to lose more than 35,000. We are facing a crisis on two fronts and the State needs to be willing to step in with the types of large-scale capital projects that can offset the decline in private sector investment. If that is not done, people will feel the hit in their pockets. People are not naive.

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