Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

I know that. However, given the way it transpired, it was somewhat inconvenient for the House, for which I apologise. I was in Luxembourg at the General Affairs Council.

Briefly, on the issue of stimulus, funding availability and what may or may not be available, it would be irresponsible of me to raise expectations about underspent Structural Funds. This is entirely a good news story, in that Ireland is one of the best countries at absorbing Structural Funds. In consequence, there are no unspent moneys available to us. By the end of the current financial framework, Ireland will have spent all the money available. This applies to the new member states of the European Union, particularly countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, which have huge difficulty in absorbing Structural Funds and which are finding it very difficult to so do. As I stated before the Joint Committee on European Union Affairs this morning when this exact question arose, as one of the more developed member states with one of the best records in absorbing Structural Funds, Ireland should assist these countries. If Structural Funds can benefit newer member states to the east in respect of expenditure on roads or whatever, it benefits everyone because obviously, Ireland has goods and services, as well as skills and labour, to provide. While this would be beneficial to Ireland and we should be working to assist those countries, it has proven very difficult. In some instances, they have absorbed only approximately 10% of their allocated funds, which is quite startling. Unfortunately however, there are no unallocated funds for Ireland.

The good news, however, regarding the figure of between €160 billion and €180 billion mentioned by the Senator is that it specifically relates to European Investment Bank funding. Last Monday evening in Luxembourg, I attended a dinner with Werner Hoyer, the President of the European Investment Bank. He is a former counterpart of mine as he was the German European affairs Minister until January this year. He is highly constructive and very engaged and is extremely positive towards Ireland and the programme countries. He is conscious of the need to prioritise investment in countries such as ours, which are struggling at present and which could do with some form of injection of growth stimulus. The figure of €180 billion is approximate and it could vary upwards or downwards. Potentially, it could range between €150 billion and €200 billion. It will arise, assuming there is agreement at tomorrow's summit on a €10 billion capital injection into the EIB, which will dramatically increase its funding capability. Werner Hoyer, in conjunction with the President of the European Commission, last week circulated a joint paper to all the Heads of State and Government, which in essence stated that with a €10 billion paid-in capital injection from the member states, the European Investment Bank could leverage that amount up to €60 billion for strategic infrastructure projects.

In the aforementioned paper, they detail quite well how they would do this, with a focus on youth unemployment, training opportunities for young people, strategic infrastructure in the form of broadband etc., as well as the green energy and technology sectors. This is very much in sync with Ireland's national priorities and we could really benefit from it. The €60 billion available from the European Investment Bank would be then be leveraged up, through co-financing and various private funding mechanisms, to the figure of approximately €180 billion. This comprises a significant capital injection for the EIB. The bank does not lend its own capital or taxpayers' money but borrows on the financial markets. Consequently, its triple-A status is of huge importance and one slight difficulty we must overcome is to identify how the EIB can invest in countries such as Ireland that do not have triple-A rating without compromising its own rating and therefore its ability to borrow on the markets. It is a little complicated, but Mr.Werner Hoyer, the president of the European Investment Bank will visit Dublin next Dublin and will meet the Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin to explore opportunities. I am friendly with him and he has expressed his sincere and genuine interest in working with Ireland to identify projects that would be a good fit for the EIB, helping it to maintain its credit rating yet also being very beneficial for Ireland. It is a good news story.