Dr. Miche?l Collins:

This is not to say that welfare was not looked at in between. There were various other endeavours, and I was involved in some along the way. Every commission is different because it is sent off to hide away and work by itself, and given the resources to come up independently with a set of views. Given the scale of what we do as a society and the structure of our governance, welfare and taxation are huge matters. When they fall apart, as we saw for the taxation system when it fell apart as the economy crashed a decade-and-a-bit ago, we end up with significant problems.

It is not quite as bad now, but we are in a shaky position where an unexpectedly large amount of taxation revenue is flowing from one area, which everybody accepts is not sustainable. We perhaps have not had the required discussions regarding what would happen if this source of revenue were to fall away suddenly and how we would replace it. There is real merit in doing this and in giving the time to this endeavour. If a commission is not established on a rolling basis, then perhaps it could be stipulated that one would sit every three or four years. This would differ from being dependent on the temperament of political parties in respect of making it happen.