Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the level of capital spending by the Exchequer for each of the last ten years in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35530/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The information sought by the Deputy is published in the annual Revised Book of Estimates and is also available in the statistical databank on my Department's website at http://databank.per.gov.ie/.

Over the past decade many of the economy's key infrastructural deficits were addressed through a large capital investment of over €60 billion in infrastructure through Exchequer capital expenditure. In recent years, it has been necessary to prioritise public spending and scale back the public capital programme in order to bring the public finances under control.

In November of last year, I published "Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2012-2016: Medium Term Exchequer Framework" which outlined the five year Exchequer Capital Framework out to 2016. This Framework was published following a Government-wide review of the public capital programme led by my Department. The Framework sets out a significant tranche of Exchequer investment over the next five years, and is designed to address critical infrastructure deficits, aid economic growth and provide much needed social infrastructure. It will be complemented by the investment plans I announced yesterday which will be largely predicated on using non-Exchequer sources of funding to support the first Phase of a new PPP Programme of projects in key areas of infrastructure.