Dr. Nat O'Connor:

I will reinforce the point that we need to take the medium-term view of where we will be in five years' time. If we are to have a tax system that is three quarters less than the European average - and presumably public spending that matches this level - what kind of a public service will we have? If people have lower taxes in that scenario they will have to put their hands in their pockets far more often to pay for services. It is a question of efficiencies. It is not always more efficient for someone to buy his or her health services by paying €50 or €100 for every visit to a GP. We have to examine the balance of efficiency; some things are more efficiently done in a public setting and some are more efficiently done in the market. We do not have a balance in place that looks anything like other small European economies. We need to look at what we want to achieve after the deficit has been consolidated. I echo Dr. Healy's point that there is a lack of a positive analysis of the institutions, the structures which will bring about prosperity, jobs, balanced regional development and so forth.