Seanad debates
Wednesday, 5 November 2003
National Development Plan Mid-Term Evaluation: Statements.
Interesting points are made in the report and I will refer briefly to them. The ESRI draws attention to the fact that spending on investment is 27% of GDP compared to an average of 20% in Germany, France and the UK. That means on an individual level we have less per capita income because we need to invest more. This is interesting. We have built up the construction sector and our housing output last year was, in absolute terms, one third of that in the UK and a quarter of that in Germany despite their vastly greater populations. There is clear merit, as the ESRI report points out, in fast tracking major public investment and legislation in that regard will be published shortly. The report points to an interesting paradox whereby wage rates for the unskilled are rising relatively quickly while wage rates for skilled workers are dropping. However, this, to a degree, may be a temporary phenomenon. The ESRI report suggests that returns on infrastructural investment are higher as a result of the growth in the 1990s and the success of our economy than they would have been previously.
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