Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Okay, my apologies.

On the issue of child care and low-density households, this recommendation goes to the heart of something about which everyone in the country is acutely aware - that a price has been paid by Irish families from the difficult economic period we have had. Everything we do is to try to encourage greater employment, giving people a greater opportunity to earn a living, and therefore allow the country through our social protection, education and health regimes to have funding available to support people in difficult situations, including long-term unemployment and child poverty.

The Senator's two-part question covered the fiscal space and the latitude we have to correct it, or by how much we should correct it. Both of those CSRs contradict each other in many ways. We have taken the view that within the fiscal space available to us, in order to have as much funding as possible to support out social welfare system, including for vulnerable young people, we will continue to achieve our targets. Where fiscal space is available, however, we will continue to reduce the amount of tax on work as well as increasing spending on public services.

While both CSRs are understandable, that is where the Government's political judgment must come into place as to how we can strike that balance. In some regards, the fiscal advisory council has a view as to how that should happen. I recently met with Commissioner Moscovici at a public forum attended by Social Justice Ireland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and other groups. It is clear that such groups would strongly encourage the Government to use the fiscal space it has, which was achieved with difficulty in recent years, to improve the situation for our citizens.

To be fair to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, and his Government colleagues, that balance has been struck while managing to achieve job creation and economic growth. As the economy recovers, this is the area where we need to work hardest to ensure that our young people are now looked after as best we can. The economic downturn has conferred a cost on some people, which has been very difficult.