Professor John FitzGerald:

While my colleagues are probably more knowledgeable on improving the welfare system, the area where there is a gain to be made is that of lone parents. This goes back to the issue of jobless households. There is a double dividend to be had from finding a way for lone parents to get married or have a partner and get back to work. The Government would save on welfare and increase its tax take and would also get more output. The work I did suggests that one percentage point of the growth rate in the second half of the 1990s was due to women joining the labour market, and given that we are running out of women who are doing this, this growth had to slow.

I am not an expert on corporation tax. In the past two budgets the Government has made significant changes, and I hope that closes off the issue. Dr. de Buitléir is much more expert on it than I.

There is still a very significant transfer to Ireland from the British Government to pay for pensions. There are EU regulations on such transfers. Given that immigrants are much less likely to draw benefits than natives, they are doing badly from the system. Although they pay taxes, when they lose their jobs, they tend to go home and not draw benefits. This mirrors what has happened in the UK. A series of papers for the UK have shown that the pensions of people there are being significantly supported by the number of immigrants. If all the immigrants in Britain went home, the UK would have a significant problem. Immigrants pay much more tax than they draw in benefits and the conclusion is that immigrants are good for pensions.