Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

These are policy decisions made by Government, but what I would say - this is endemic in any social security system - is that no matter where one sets a threshold, somebody will be on the other side of the line and will suffer while somebody else will gain. It is extraordinarily difficult to set that in any of our social welfare schemes. In terms of how we compare with other member states, other member states have similar issues but due to their demographics they have had much longer to prepare. Effectively, Ireland lost a generation in the 1950s, so our profile is very different from other member states and, as a result, the impact on our public finances will hit much faster than in other member states.