Professor Niamh Moloney:

I will be as quick as I can in responding. I thank the Deputy for noting the international context. There is value for this kind of exercise in looking at what other international systems are doing. I will make a couple of observations in that regard. The extent to which there are great debates about very similar issues and questions in so many places internationally right now is interesting. It behoves us to look at these international debates. We must always be very conscious of context. Debates, particularly debates on tax and welfare, happen in very distinct local, cultural and institutional contexts. In drawing and learning from international experience, we have always been very careful about how it is imported and about learning the right kind of lessons. Considering the international context is the kind of value a commission like this can bring.

The Deputy's second point related to interacting with different governmental perspectives about the role of the State and so on. Our view is that we are a technocratic commission and that it is our job to stand back, think about the systems and take a ten, 15 or 20-year perspective. That is our job. Once we have delivered on that, the political and democratic system steps in. We hope and aim for our report to be a credible and resilient resource over the long term. We want it to be something that can be used by the people of Ireland over a good timeframe and a resilient resource for the future.

With regard to the papers, at the moment, we are publishing our minutes because it is very important that the public has a good sense of how we are approaching matters. Along with our consultation document, we prepared a primer document with data and discussion on different tax bases. That aimed to support our consultation. The research papers will feed into our ultimate report in different ways. The data and so on we will be using will be available in the report in due course. That will form part of the report in July.