Oliver Mangan: Government can borrow at low cost for productive investments

Iin its July update, the Department of Finance recalibrated the Government’s medium-term fiscal framework to provide for additional spending to “increase the supply of housing and other critical infrastructure”.

The Economic and Social Research Institute, in its quarterly economic commentary published in June, argued the case for increased government capital spending in the present very low interest rate environment. 

It acknowledged the need for prudent management of current spending to bring the budget deficit down and put the public finances back on a sustainable footing after the sharp rise in government borrowing in 2020-2021 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.