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

As the Minister knows, I have been raising the need to increase capital expenditure over the past year, not just due to the fact that this State has historically lagged behind our EU peers when it comes to capital investment, and not just due to the fact we have a massive housing and infrastructural deficit which we badly need to close, but because capital investment is seen as the best possible route out of this crisis. Not only will it help us to turn things around in the short term but, in the medium to long term, it will place this State on a surer, more balanced footing. I take on board what the Minister says in regard to increased levels of capital expenditure. The fact it is set to rise to historically high levels, while welcome, says more about the chronic underinvestment that has taken place over the years than it does about the scale of the present ambition. We need to be absolutely ambitious in regard to this because people deserve better. People do not have homes. We now have a situation where the ESRI is very clearly saying that, yes, we know what the Government is committing but, wait a minute, it needs to double. Can the Minister commit to doubling that?

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