Professor John McHale:

The Vice Chairman's suggestions are very well timed and as we will discuss our medium terms tomorrow, we will keep this under considerations. I will let the committee know the dilemma with which we are struggling. To have an effect for the long term it will probably be well after the present membership of the council has moved on. That is the value of having this independent body. We want to ensure we are seen as independent and not political. If we get into specific issues involving very strong political divides there is a risk that we become associated with one side or the other. That is not to say that we cannot get into more issues as we feel our way.

I would like people to understand that we believe that the perception of our independence is critical to our functioning and we need to maintain that while expanding the scope of what we review. We have a mandate that will be set down by legislation and we also need to be sensitive to that. Within the constraints of that and the constraint of having to protect our independence for reasons of impartiality, we will certainly try to expand the scope of what we consider and give an opinion on it in the report as much as possible. In many cases it may be laying out, based on the economic knowledge of these areas, various criteria of good policies and finding options that look good across a range of those criteria. That might be the way we can say more on the specifics of adjustments without seeming to take sides on very politically charged issues. I just wanted to outline the dilemma with which we are struggling.