Ms Bríd O'Brien:

At least people could build up that level of protection if things did not work out and they would be assured of access to jobseeker's benefit, for example. We are conscious that quite a number of people who ended up in difficulties during the recession because of their unfortunate circumstances were able to access jobseeker's allowance because they met the means-test criteria. It is around how to build that safety net for people. In that regard, some changes have been introduced that will allow greater access to some of the social insurance supports. If everything goes belly-up for people, the only payment they can access now is jobseeker's allowance. We were struck by how there seemed to be a greater contribution to the pot in other countries in order to cover the issue.