Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I completely agree. The Deputy is dead right. That is why a strength of what we have tried to do so far is to integrate our capital plans and expenditure into the national framework and try to run both together.

On the Deputy's point about the need for more forward planning and the need to be more predictable, this is the reason why we have set out capital expenditure ceilings for the entire Government for a number of years in advance. As the Deputy is aware, these are done for a period of an additional four years every time we do the summer economic statement. I am now in the process of trying to confirm to individual Departments what their expenditure ceilings will be for 2026. We are doing all of that then be in a position to enable the kind of long-term planning which the Deputy has rightly made the case for.

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