Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The answer is very comprehensive. There has been an extraordinary response to the Covid pandemic over the past few years. As free money was available from Europe, we were able to spend our way out of it, which was very positive. I have no difficulty with that, but it entailed borrowing large amounts of money. That was fine when that money was coming at virtually zero cost but we know that due to high inflation central banks worldwide and the European Central Bank are now talking about putting interest rates up. It would appear that particular period is coming to an end, which means that we all have to be a little more careful about balancing the books.

I will separate capital expenditure from current expenditure because, as far as I am concerned, the former is investment while the latter is gone in the year it happens. Part of the reason for good results on the expenditure front in previous years was an underspend in capital. I do not think we should rely on that. If we look at the current spend, taking all the contingencies we now know about into account, such as Covid, as the Minister outlined in detail, and the Ukrainian crisis, how near to projection will the current spend come in at the end of the year based on what we know at present?

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