Dr. Donal de Buitléir:

The fact is that we have the most progressive tax and transfer system. Whether that is good or bad is a matter for politics. People who state in the media that it is not the most progressive are just talking rubbish, but sometimes that happens. Nobody in this room would be guilty of that, of course.

I was asked about the back to work dividend. I will come back to that. The issue I am really concerned about is the high number of workless households. The national expert on that subject, Professor Dorothy Watson, is in the room. She has done really ground-breaking research on this. The issue is really important economically and socially. I speculate that this has a significant part to play in explaining why our market income distribution is so unequal. If 23% of people, or approximately one quarter of the population, have little or no market income, it seems there will be a very unequal distribution.

On the question of why the Irish economy is unusual by comparison with others, we have a very large multinational sector. We generally have a dual economy in Ireland, comprising a multinational sector and a domestic economy. Incomes in the multinational sector, I suspect, are significantly higher than in the rest of the economy. I do not have any data and it may be hard to quantify.

I am really concerned about pension sustainability, not only in respect of the State pension but also in respect of the occupational pension. Life expectancy is increasing. This is alarming to a pension fund manager, although the rest of us believe it is very good.