Dr. Se?n Healy:

The important thing here is how we can keep these commissions free of political control or regulation. I am referring to "political" with a small P in this context. I am not talking about party political manipulation. I am talking about other kinds of political manipulation. I think there is great value in thinking through the possibility of putting something in a prominent position in this regard. We could then certainly have a situation where it had to be rejuvenated or reconstituted every five years, or something of that nature, to ensure it did not end up getting parked and become another such parked operation that we end up hearing about once every few decades or something like that. We must certainly get away from that approach.

The other aspect I thought was very good this time, in theory, though how good it will prove to be in practice we will see, was the issue of integrating the tax and welfare systems. These are two critical issues. I echo the point made by Dr. Collins that these are two major elements. They are also two extremely interconnected issues. Issues are also now emerging that were not there before. While there was talk about and initiatives concerning benchmarking welfare payments, it now seems to be on the agenda more. There is also, however, fundamental disagreement about what this means and what these payments would be benchmarked against. Would they be benchmarked against something like wages or against the cost of the goods and services that people need to live with some dignity? There are, therefore, these kinds of issues, and this is not just confined to the issue of welfare. It goes for taxes as well.