Dr. Seán Healy:

It is challenging to reduce it down to three issues because there is obviously more that needs to be done but it is a good question. The matter of social investment is critical. In the process, we need the social investment, particularly to protect vulnerable people and ensure poor people are not worse off as a result. We talked earlier about how some people would lose out and some would not. It is critically important that the poorest and most vulnerable are not the ones who lose out or that they do not lose out at all in this process. We must prioritise social protection and services. The second thing is that every sector must make a contribution, not just individuals. We need to be looking at it in that way because sometimes we approach these things as if they are personal responsibilities and then we do not actually get those critically important kinds of results at all.

I will also suggest two other small things. They are not really small but people should be aware of them. The Government should take the sustainable development goals more seriously. There are 17 goals, devised by the UN, and Ireland was very involved in shaping them. Why do we not see what is required to deliver them within Ireland? They are supposed to be delivered in every country. There is a 2030 deadline for that as well so it would fit neatly enough.

Finally, I suggest that we develop shadow national accounts. They have this in other countries, such as in Germany for example. They have the national accounts about which we all know but they also expand them to include things that are not counted, such as the value of work that is not paid employment, the cost of using up raw materials that are not replaceable and damage done environmentally. By putting those factors in you get a better, more rounded focus. There already something in the programme for Government about the importance of well-being and a well-being budget. That could integrate very well with both the shadow national accounts and targets on the sustainable development goals. There is a series of things that could be done there, all of which would go towards dealing with the question raised earlier by Deputy Bruton about how we get society to accept the fact that there has to be quite serious change here.