Dr. Claire Keane:

It is a unique situation. Generally, we think if employment rises, then overall incomes should rise. There has been a longer running and more structural issue in Ireland in that we have the highest inequality in employee and self-employed earnings, and this has been consistent across the OECD. We do not really know what drives that but one of the drivers is the fact we have a higher proportion of households out of work. Across the OECD there might be one partner out of work, but Ireland has a higher proportion where both people in a couple are out of work. That can cause issues. There is a lot to unpick about what drives that. It is tricky because Covid-related unemployment was concentrated at the lower end of the income distribution. We would expect as those sectors bounce back there should be a boost to employment in the lower income groups, but we have to keep a careful eye on that and will not really know more until we have 2022 data from the CSO, the survey of income and living conditions. That will tell us much more.