Ms Bríd O'Brien:

On Senator Barrett's points about allowances, it is very important that the Department of Finance report annually on what is and is not allowable, its purpose and outcome, and, from our perspective, the employment outcomes. The social welfare Bill is rammed through the Houses of the Oireachtas at extraordinary speed, while the Finance Bill wanders through and looks very different by the time it comes out the far end as the Finance Act. These issues of inequity must be addressed.

The Mangan report examined child income supports. Poor children do not exist in a vacuum. They will now be looking at working age income supports and it will be interesting to see what the take is on family income supplement when one examines it in the broader context. It is very important that when trying to target resources, we do not create additional poverty traps. There is a danger with some of the recommendations that we might create additional poverty traps at very low incomes. It is about trying to support people to take up and maintain work, ensure the income supports are provided and design things without cut-off points where people will be caught but with better tapering. That is important.

On investment, a number of us do not necessarily mean the type of investment that leaks out of Ireland but investment within Ireland, particularly in education, training and employment programmes for the unemployed. Likewise with public sector reform, if the investment is not made, we will not see outcomes. From our perspective, it is about ensuring education, training and employment services are what they ought to be. For some of the broader questions the Deputy raised, it is about ensuring there are the competencies in the various Departments to provide good public services, that they are provided regardless of who is delivering them and that all of them are as accountable as they ought to be. As Mr Doorley said, often the smaller projects are accountable for every cent, while the bigger ones seem to be like cauldrons.