Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is a huge amount in what the witnesses have presented this morning and then there are reading lists accompanying most of the submissions. There is a considerable amount to take in. I am going to torture a couple of metaphors to death by way of opening. When Dr. Griffin said our welfare system is a "perpetual calibration", it made me think of a bicycle. People will say I am a Green Party Deputy so of course I would think of a bicycle but it is like that. It takes small interventions at all times to keep the bike balanced and on the road. One of the issues is that if one is in the Department of Social Protection, one does not get the opportunity to get off the bicycle and take a look at it; one has got to keep it rolling.

The other terrible metaphor I am going to use is buckaroo because our social welfare system has been a bit like that, particularly around means-testing. Every time we invent another scheme, we hang a hat on the saddle of the horse and eventually we come to a point where we have to kick everything off. I am sorry Chairman, but I did say I was going to torture some metaphors.