Ms Claire Hanna:

I thank our witnesses very much. It has been an informative meeting. I logged on a bit late but I was able to listen to the live stream and the evidence while I was in transit. It is useful for the here and now in respect of the changes that can be and are being advocated for. As others have said, this is with a view to trying to build a system that is new and better for the new Ireland. Improving outcomes for people, particularly for the most vulnerable people, is a good place to start regarding the purpose of bringing about constitutional change because it is very bleak in this region at the moment. The loss of funding streams for some of the groups supporting people furthest away from the labour market has just been touched on. We have the squeeze of an increasingly harsh, unresponsive and unincentivised welfare system without undertaking the kind of reform of work through programmes that help people to get back into work and providing the childcare that makes this feasible for people.

I am sure there is a utopia but is there a system the witnesses would regard as a particularly good model? I presume there is somewhere in Europe we should be replicating. The concept of the universal basic income was also mentioned, as was the sectoral approach. Many of us are watching with great interest the artists income trial in the South. An all-party group that I chair in Westminster had the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin, over to present on this issue. We are monitoring how it goes. I think this kind of targeted approach is the way to do this, given the tax system we have. What are the witnesses' views on this initiative as a concept and what it might do in reducing things like sanctions and penalties, which have become especially punitive and damaging to people?

It was also briefly mentioned that the system is slightly more generous in the South. How does that shake out as regards the cost of living, affordability and, for want of a better phrase, people's purchasing power? How does that balance and measure out in terms of sustaining people's living standards?