I thank Senator O'Sullivan. I welcome the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe and call him to conclude.

I thank all Senators for the contributions they have made. I have made notes on the points made by each Member and I will comment on each of the individual contributions. However, I will comment also on a number of broad themes that relate to the points made.

First, I want to comment on the concept of progress. It is important as we ground our contributions that we do so with an appreciation of progress made and what we have, not just what we need to do. In making this point, I am very conscious of the social needs that exist across all the groups that Members represent, across all communities and towns in the country. Of course, I represent a constituency in which these social needs are particularly acute. Recognising those needs should not be at the expense of progress we have made in the issues we have touched on here this afternoon.

It is important to acknowledge the deficiencies we have in our infrastructure. It is important to acknowledge the improvements we need to make. I will comment on that in a moment. Let us do that in the spirit of acknowledging that we have a national road network that in many parts of our country meets the needs of those who need to commute on it. Let us acknowledge that for a country of our size, notwithstanding the concerns that were articulated by Senator Grace O'Sullivan, we have a very well-developed national, local and regional airport network. Let us acknowledge that our port network from Dublin to Cork, to Shannon-Foynes and the regional ports has proven well capable of bringing in the goods and services that our State needs and exporting them in turn. We have a gas network that is capable of meeting the needs of our State and all the businesses that depend on it. Notwithstanding the work we need to do in regard to the interconnector for our island, we have an electricity network that is capable of meeting many of the needs of the businesses and communities on whom it depends.

While of course I acknowledge the infrastructure deficits we have, to which Members referred, if we do not begin these discussions with an appreciation of where we are, we will fall victim to the kind of hollow populism that is articulated by Sinn Féin and others on the far left who seek to focus only on the difficulties we have, and I acknowledge there are great difficulties, but give no recognition whatever to the progress that has been achieved. The only objective those kind of contributions have is generating an air of permanent crisis where all they want to focus on is what has not been done or not been delivered. There is never ever any reference or recognition of the progress that has been made-----

That is because we have been in crisis for the past six years.

-----and what is being delivered by our national infrastructure network.

The same point stands in respect of where we are with public services. Of course let us acknowledge the difficulties and needs we have but let us also acknowledge that a small open economy and society located on the edge of Europe had a standard of living 40 years ago that was considerably below the European average and now has a standard of living - for many, though not all, and we always have to acknowledge what remains to be done and what we have a duty to do - that is now ahead of the European average.

There are many reasons for that achievement but two that are especially important for the discussion we are having here is that we have a network of enterprise, both domestic and international, that has flourished as the economy has looked abroad. The economy moved away from being inward looking to an economy that was capable of competing with a global economy as it deepened its own integration. The other foundation of that achievement has been the excellence of our public servants, whether this has been what our teachers have delivered in classrooms or in higher education, the ability of our civil servants, the independence of our Judiciary or what our nurses and doctors do in our hospitals and primary care centres, while of course acknowledging the challenges we have which are the subject of negotiations that are under way.

Let us also do it in the spirit of acknowledging that the interrelationship that I described earlier of public and private sectors working together more often than not has achieved results and delivered prospects for our State that, despite our scale and where we are located, are achievements that would have been unimaginable even as recently as 2009, 2010 and 2011. With those points made, I wish to address some of the specific issues that were raised by individual Senators.

Senator Horkan made the point about the need to take advantage of investment that may be available from the European Union and its institutions. I agree with him. This is the reason the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and I visited the European Investment Bank last week. One of the points he made, which is a common rejoinder to the issues that have been raised by Senators in the debate, is that we must integrate those investment choices into a planning framework that we will make work. While we have more resources, we have a resource available in the future that, if we make the right choices, is capable of making a big difference to people's standards of living and to the climate change needs and obligations we have to meet. We have to embed all this in a planning framework that recognises that Ireland has an extraordinary demographic gift, which is the prospect of having a million more people living on our island at a time when many other countries in the European Union will be experiencing unchanged birth rates or unchanged populations. We have to be able to plan for that in a way we have not in the past.

Senator McDowell made the very fair point in respect of recruitment.

I am also very much aware of where we are within the State from a recruitment and retention of staff point of view. Again, people will point to the difficulties. Let us look at some of the figures on the numbers of people who applied for roles. In January 2016, as many as 15,901 people applied for posts in An Garda Síochána. In September 2016, as many as 5,102 people applied for roles in An Garda Síochána. Across both of those periods we recruited 350 and 650 gardaí, respectively. We are in a situation where the number of people who apply for posts is considerably ahead of the number of posts we seek to recruit.

One can make the point that we should recruit more people. The same point has been made about many areas of public service. In nearly all areas of recruitment we can bring people in and, in many cases, we are capable of retaining them. Let me give a completely different example of another form of recruitment to illustrate my point. Let us consider the campaigns that we ran in February of this year for senior executive engineers. We appointed 71 individuals to posts and 869 people applied for the posts. From a remuneration point of view, leaving aside my obligations in terms of FEMPI, we do not have a generalised recruitment issue at the moment.

Senator McDowell made a point about cross-Border investment. I made a particular reference to regional needs in the capital plan review. The north west was included because I am particularly sensitive to some of those needs in light of what is happening with Brexit.

Senator Kieran O'Donnell called for an integrated model for private and public pay, which I believe in very strongly as somebody who has worked in both sectors for many years. He asked me whether we have a public service that is fit for purpose and I would say that, by and large, we do. Of course there will always be improvements or changes that can be made. Of course the focus is always going to be on difficulties. Of course I am aware of the challenges in our hospitals. One should consider the care that patients receive, the research and innovation that is under way in our universities and the ability of Irish diplomats and the progress that they have made in terms of Brexit. While acknowledging the many challenges and difficulties, I contend that we have civil and public servants and services that achieve more than is commonly given credit for. If we do not begin with an appreciation of what has been achieved then we will get ourselves into a place where it will be more difficult to sustain the political equilibrium and support that is needed to support this kind of approach in the future.

Senator Kieran O'Donnell made a point about the M20 project. I am very much aware of his long-standing interest in the project. As a former Member of the Dáil and now a Member of the Seanad, he has stressed this matter to me on a number of occasions. As he will know, we aim to consider the project in the context of the capital review. As he has acknowledged, he is well aware of the decision that the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, has made to move the project forward from the pre-planning stage.

I agree with very little that Senator Gavan has said. His comments are an example of the empty populism that has damaged our ability to have rational discussions and make choices about issues faced by this country. He contended, without a shred of evidence, that the decisions I will make and that this and the previous Government have made were based on private interest. The only motivation that I have in any decision that I make is the common good. I must make a decision in the context of not having all of the resources that are available to me to make all of the decisions that everybody in this House would want. The reason for such a stance is because I only have the prospect of being able to spend once any euro that is available to me. I am continually aware of one group that has not been mentioned at all this evening - perhaps that is a consequence of the theme of this evening's debate - the taxpayer. I must make sure that the decisions that we make are consistent with the ability of the taxpayer in Ireland to fund them and the ability of our tax system to be competitive, which is a point the Minister for Finance continually makes. Needs are growing and while we will be able to meet many of them, we will always need to make choices about the available resources.

Senator Gavan made a surreal contention that there was no capital plan, let alone a review of a capital plan. There clearly is a capital plan and I shall give an example. My constituency is not short of Sinn Féin councillors turning up to welcome housing projects that have been funded by the capital plan that he denies exists.

Yes, but we pointed out the weaknesses in the plan.

We have seen, on many occasions, Sinn Féin councillors.

It is a free market plan.

The Minister, without interruption please.

I attended a launch for O'Devaney Gardens, which is the kind of project that Senator Gavan has claimed in his contribution does not exist.

That is not what I said. The Minister did not listen to me.

The project was acknowledged and welcomed by local Sinn Féin representatives.

I can assure Senator Dolan that I am well aware of the tension between section 38 and section 39 organisations. I understand the difference between them. I understand that this is a particularly live issue among organisations that provide services to citizens with disabilities and special needs. I will anchor this matter into current negotiations through the concept of affordability. It will be a tough task to reach an agreement on public pay but I will approach it in good faith and with a desire to reach an agreement. I am aware that our decisions about the rate of public pay must be affordable in two ways. First, in our ability to pay for same and second, the impact the rate of pay will have on other parts of our economy. While that would be traditionally understood in terms of the private sector and the relationship between public and private sector pay, which I think has profoundly changed in the past decade, I am aware that the decision that we make about public service pay will have consequences for other organisations that are not of the public service but provide public services. I take the point Senator Dolan made about this aspect.

Senator Dolan also made a point about the role of the health service and the cost of €14.1 billion. He also mentioned the consideration other Departments that spend money must give to take account of the people who have disabilities and needs when it comes to accessing public services. I agree with the Senator. Today, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, in Cabinet brought forward a strategy on this very area. Earlier he identified transport as an example. He stated that when making capital choices in the future on buses and trains, we must be conscious of the needs of all who travel on them.

The Senator made a point about disabled people who are in work or want to return to work, a point also made by the Ministers for Health and Social Protection. I know both Ministers launched an initiative on this matter with the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath. The initiative seeks to make clear to people who have a disability or who are in the workplace that needs which are being met at the moment by the availability of a medical card will continue to be met for a long time until they enter the workplace. The Minister of State has highlighted this point a lot.

Senator Paddy Burke made a point about the cost of building a home and how we need to interrogate this matter even further.

I entirely agree with the Senator but, as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I want to ensure that if we have difficulties in the private housing market - which we do at the moment - we do not allow the solution to rest entirely with the taxpayer. We are looking at the differential between providing a house or apartment in Ireland and doing so in other jurisdictions, and why there is such a differential, and I expect this work to be completed by June.

Senator Nash is not in the House but I will take up the points he made. For many years, the fact that the Irish taxpayer had to bear the cost of supporting our entire banking system was a cause of great and legitimate anger and, now that we have the prospect of unwinding it, I am at a loss as to why it is being opposed by the same people who were against the taxpayer taking on the cost at the time. If the Minister, Deputy Noonan, believes this is in the interest of the taxpayer it will commence but there is a broader rationale for considering it. If we want to reduce the systemic risk facing the Irish economy, there should be more owners of our pillar banks than the taxpayer.

I touched on some of the points made by Senator Buttimer, particularly the Cork-Limerick road. I agree with much of what Senator Grace O'Sullivan said. The decisions we make in the capital review may not meet many of the needs to which she referred because she may have different priorities from mine but we did put terms of reference for climate change into the review. I will not prejudge the review but public and sustainable transport has to be a significant beneficiary of the process. We will not be able to make progress on standard of living and all the needs correctly identified by the Senator unless we make a lot more progress on high-capacity and high-speed public transport in the parts of the country where the population merits it.