Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That point spoke to me when I heard it. To be frank, I disagreed with some of the proposals in Friday's meeting but that point about research and innovation stood out to me. I thought it was very interesting.

I found the opening statements made to this meeting very interesting. Our guests have responded to my colleague, Deputy Patricia Ryan. At one point in his opening statement, Dr. McDonnell from NERI said, "In particular, the stated plan to cut taxes for higher earners seems unwise to us." Our guests have also mentioned spending deficits in areas such as childcare. Representatives of IFAC and the ESRI were before the committee earlier. They spoke about how difficult it is to target those middle-income households.

The lower-income households are obviously really struggling but it is easier practically to target them. How can they be targeted? The ESRI referred to expanding the working family payment, for example. I think I heard IBEC suggest that at a meeting and somebody else had also said it. Obviously, what middle-income earners earn should be able to pay for what they are doing.