Mr. Mickey Brady:

I thank Professor FitzGerald and Professor Morgenroth for their presentations. My background is working in the welfare system and I continue to do so on a daily basis. What Professor FitzGerald said very clearly is that the welfare system in the North is much less than that in the South. It is grossly inferior and I come across this on a daily basis. Certainly the recent introduction of universal credit has caused tremendous problems. If we look at what the Tories are doing, they seem to be intent on demolishing the last two pillars of the welfare state, namely, the welfare system and the NHS. In the 1860s, Isaac Butt said in the British Parliament that the poor are often talked about in the House but never entertained. Nothing has changed. This leads, of course, to health inequalities. A report a few years ago by the chief medical officer in the North indicated that people who lived in the leafy suburbs of Finaghy in Belfast had a longer life expectancy, by ten years or more, than someone who lived in the city centre. This, of course, is due to poor diet and lack of funds.

In terms of the convergence, and convergence is a word that has been mentioned quite a lot today, of this type of system on an all-Ireland basis, there is a myth abroad, very much in the North, and I deal with both sides of the community on a daily basis, that the system in the North is better. It is not and Professor FitzGerald has addressed that. Perhaps this is something we need to start a bit more publicity on that people in the North are much worse off with regard to benefits. I know time is running out so I will leave it at that.