Professor Niamh Moloney:

I thank the Chairman for the question. Tax and welfare operate at two levels in some respects. The budgetary cycle, which is an annual cycle, is a really important political process. It debates and adopts the budget for the year and makes the choices for that year around spending, borrowing and how tax and welfare are going to work. That is fundamental and critical to ourselves as a nation. There is also that wider debate and discussion and choice about the bigger system, standing back from the immediate pressures that the Government or Parliament face in any given year and the short-term choices that have to be made about particular issues. In terms of where we come in, cognisant of the types of issues, pressures, changes and dynamics that are out there, we put all of that into a melting pot and try to come up with menus, recommendations and options that will be resilient in ten, 15 or 20 years and that are there to be used by the political process in accordance with the needs and pressures that arise and the choices that need to be made at any given time. We are very cognisant of it and we are conscious of what is going on in any particular budgetary cycle, but we come in at that wider point.