Dr. Ciara Fitzpatrick:

To answer Senator Black’s question about a jurisdiction that can serve as a model for what a welfare state would look like, we do not have to look very far away. After the referendum results in Scotland in 2014, Scotland was awarded more devolved social security powers. Scotland has decided to ground its social security system on the basis of human rights, dignity and respect. Scotland is imbedding those principles into each area of social security assessment. For example, it has decided that instead of contracting out disability assessments, which we have in Northern Ireland, it is bringing them inhouse and will do them in a much more dignified way to protect people's respect and how they live.

I find it quite exciting to think that Scotland is doing what it is doing and that what is being done is very much based on the lived experience of poverty. That country got together big lived experience panels to directly feed into what policy and legislation would look like. It is quite exciting that Scotland is doing this within the auspices of the British social security system and within the limitations of their devolved competencies in respect of social security. So it is really exciting to think what a new Ireland could do in terms of developing a brand new system that would put those important principles at the very heart and how it would treat each group or community in society.

On the question about ageing societies and pensions, that is a massive challenge in terms of the social security protection that we give to older people but also in respect of social care and how we support older people to live their best lives. There is a lot of work to be done across the piece on what a minimum income standard would look like for different people in society, including what it would look like for older people, which requires more research and work.

Obviously it is important to recognise that there are in people in Northern Ireland who were particularly impacted by the conflict. They will require additional support in respect of their pension because of the physical and psychological injuries that they have suffered.