The Government is committed to balanced regional development, something we all support. Page 60 of the programme for Government contains a commitment to develop the cities of Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Galway as viable alternatives to Dublin. In the National Development Plan 2021-2030, the indicative capital expenditure on those four cities for the period ending in 2030 is €8.3 billion. The comparable figure for Dublin is €31.3 billion, almost four times as much. I know there is a population difference but even the per capita investment is still skewed to the east coast. Does the Government propose to alter the capital distribution within the national development plan to realise its objective of balanced regional development?

I thank Deputy O'Dea for raising this important matter. It is probably fair to say that there are a number of national projects based in Dublin that obviously provide benefit to people from Limerick and people from the regions. I would have to look into it but I imagine that has had some impact on the figures but I take the point that he makes. We need to continue to actively prioritise and promote balanced regional development and using our capital budget is one way to do that. I would say to the Deputy is there will be a number of opportunities, including when we debate what to do with Apple funding, probably in the next Dáil, to seek to make progress on the issue of further capital funding in the regions, particularly Limerick which I am sure is on the Deputy's mind.