Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I agree with what Senator Keane and others have said. I hope that the borrowing will be accompanied by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform having a much stricter regime than in the past on capital expenditure, including cost-benefit analysis not done by the promoters, but done independently. It was not just rescuing banks that got us into trouble. There was a tradition both in the banks and in the public sector of not doing proper capital investment appraisal. Based on the last troika review even with the cutbacks in capital spending we are spending approximately 4.2% of GDP against the average of 2.8% for OECD countries.

We still have very large capital investment and there is still the danger it could lead to a repeat of past mistakes, which the Houses of the Oireachtas are trying to correct. We need cost benefit analyses. I would back it up with a central office of project evaluation to ensure that we do not go down the road graphically illustrated by Senator Keane, whereby people get their borrowings guaranteed, it then becomes like snuff at a wake or a celebration breaks out, engineers go a little wild and spend loads of money and somebody else has to make up the balance.

I support the amendment but it, in turn, must be supported by a better way of doing business with capital spending than what we have been used to in the past.