Capital spending - Bitter lesson we should never forget

IT was inevitable that yesterday’s announcement of a six-year revised capital investment programme would have to take the “pace and depth” of changes in our economy into consideration.

Any other course of action was not an option for a country trying to restore some sort of equilibrium to its out-of-kilter finances.

Investment has been reduced from an anticipated €56.6 billion to €39.43bn. This represents a cut of 31%. All of the capital will have to be borrowed from various banks, some of which created the mess that forced the drastic cuts in the programme.