Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Professor Pissarides to the House. He referred to the importance of capital investment. Up to 2010 this country had a capital investment programme of up to 5% of GNP and it is now closer to 3%. A cut in the capital programme is seen by many governments as being the easy option. In the most recent budget there was a further cut of ¤750 million. It is difficult for governments to balance the books. Ireland is in a programme. The troika has been very critical of extensive cuts but the Government believes in over-cutting the capital investment programme.

One area in which we have been unable to get any leverage is private sector pensions, corporate pensions in particular. Over ¤80 billion is invested in Irish pensions and this does not include the foreign pensions managed in this country. Have other countries been able to leverage private sector pension investment at a corporate level to provide direct investment in infrastructural and other capital programmes which are regarded as having good steady long-term investment returns? Successive Governments have been very slow in accessing and opening that pot. What is the easiest way to do this? Have other EU states been successful at driving private sector investment into public infrastructural projects?