Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witness. As the Chair, I have two very quick questions. I note Dr. Lawless's references to Dr. Shane Whelan's proposal and to pensions. How does she think that any reforms to the USC could be made in a revenue-neutral way, because it will obviously be a huge loss? Does she think that, in those circumstances, there would have to be an intermediate tax? On labour participation, we all know that the higher earner is often male and is the assessable person in any joint policy. Therefore the female is the secondary earner. How does Dr. Lawless think that could be addressed? That is obviously one of the barriers to women in the market.

In respect of demographics, we have an ageing demographic. I see what Dr. Lawless has said about increasing the pension age to 70. Would she accept that, if that were the case, we would then have to increase the funding to promote health policies for older people? At the moment there is no uniform cross-Department approach to the costs of demographic changes in any guise. That is something I would advocate in terms of the Civil Service making policy in the future. I would like Dr. Lawless's views on that.