Dr. Laura Bambrick:

I would struggle to pronounce it but I can follow up with the Vice Chairman. A group of economists out of Oxford are actually following it. It is like a real live experiment and the provisional findings from it have been very successful. This is about jobs that are paid at the minimum level, however. I do not know, but their minimum wage could be more generous than ours. As Mr. Gibbons said, we have not looked into it. This is just to let the committee know that a live pilot is currently going on. I will follow up with the secretariat with the details on that.

I will mention a few more issues. One of the cost-of-living announcements that went under the radar yesterday was the roll-out of free school meals in all DEIS schools and a commitment to look at free school meals in all schools. This will be hugely helpful to those working parents who feel they do not qualify for anything or that they are dependent purely on their earned income. We have been looking at this in London over the past few years where some of their burroughs have introduced free school meals. Previously, people had to apply for this and show that the household income was below a certain amount. They showed that introducing free school meals takes an income stress off the family. Like Mr. McDonnell mentioned, it is those reduced out-of-pocket costs. It has resulted in really good attendance records. Schools were struggling to get certain children back after Covid-19. It is, therefore, a real win-win. That was rolled out in all DEIS schools but a commitment was made to look at this for all schools. It is a bit like the roll-out of free school books in primary schools from September. We can reduce those costs for those parents who are working and feel the only thing they get is the monthly children's allowance. These things then get public buy-in. People are invested in our social spending and do not just see our welfare system as being for others. They see it as something they can rely on as well.

On a final point of information, there is a plan within the Department to start benchmarking the State pension from January of next year. Deputy Nash asked the question about what Government has done wrong or what it could have done in the past 18 months since the Commission on Taxation and Welfare report was published. There is one thing it could have done better. When the Commission on Taxation and Welfare report was published, the Department of Social Protection came back within six months and said it was not going to increase the pension age, but that many other recommendations were made by this commission and this was what it was going to do. One of those recommendations was around benchmarking the State pension. Therefore, from January next year, we will see a number of those commission recommendations being worked through. It would be really helpful if Government was to make an official response the the Commission on Taxation and Welfare and let us know what it accepts or rejects and what the road map is for implementing it. It has been really helpful for us to look at and follow the commission on pensions. That is just one point.