Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister spoke earlier about the merits of not using one-off funding for day-to-day measures. I find it difficult to disagree with that. Once-off funding can be used for capital projects. There is a dire need for transport capital projects in particular. People look back at the Celtic tiger and say that at least we got roads out it. If this is a boom, what will we look back on and be able to say we got out of it? There is a necessity for electricity generation capacity in this country. We can import as much French nuclear energy as we want but we will import it at whatever cost they want to sell it. There are simply no alternatives to using cars in Ireland. The idea that we will have 1 million cars and the electricity to provide for them by 2030 is laughable. While I do not have any problem with putting money aside, I just wonder whether some of it should be spent on once-off capital funding now.

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