Ms Bríd O'Brien:

It is probably an issue to be explored further, together with whether the role of the Social Insurance Fund should be broader. It is currently quite specific and narrow. The issue of whether that should be broadened is one to be teased out. It is one block of tax or contribution paid by the citizen where he or she can see where the money goes. From that point of view, it can play that role. However, it would need to be teased out further if that was a route we were to go down. That would require further exploration and discussion.

We would regard the living wage as an important concept because many of us have concerns about the fact that the terms and conditions of work for many people are not as good as they once were. There is the impact that has on people trying to move from welfare into work or people who are working who are trying to cope with the cost of living or even the cost of going to work and being able to participate in society. Therefore, it is an important concept.

Deputy Cullinane raised the issue of the relationship between welfare and work and, ultimately, who needs to contribute to the take-home pay that the worker gets and how can that be done as fairly as possible. For many of us the concept of decent work and people earning a decent wage is critical. People need to feel that they will be protected in their work and that they will have security in terms of the hours they work. People need to know what their income is likely to be from week to week. There can be some flexibility around the second or the third wage coming into a family. That might suit people and they might be able to manage on that basis. However, if flexibility surrounds the primary wage, it is very difficult for people to manage because often they do not know, from week to week, where they stand. Given that much of Ireland's social policy is very much based on individuals being able to provide for themselves and their families, we need to have better services. Countries where there is greater equality generally have better services. We need to explore those issues further and address them in a way that gives people a sense that this is very much their country and that they can manage well with what is on offer. There are still a number of issues to be teased out. Some of those are around the vision we want for this country and how we want to it develop and emerge, particularly coming out of the recession to ensure that the recovery is experienced by everybody.