Mr. Paul Mac Flynn:

On the question of corporation tax, we said it before it was cool, and before the fiscal commission reported on it, mostly because we had been examining, even if one were able to devolve the rate of corporation tax, the whole other suite of taxation measures that simply would not have been available to the Northern Ireland Executive. Even if it was to have worked, in terms of attracting, the proposition was not going to be the same North and South. Also, when one devolves the fiscal power from Westminster to Stormont, the Stormont budget takes the hit if things do not work out as well. Consequently, if the extra revenue generated by the cut does not materialise, then that is an immediate call on money which would ordinarily go to public spending. Even from a distributional point of view, it was quite a complex proposition.

The Deputy mentioned the labour market and asked about areas where there is a similarity in economic inactivity. I am glad that the Deputy mentioned childcare next because childcare is another area where there is a similarity and the lack of affordable childcare is feeding the inactivity rate on both parts of the island. In England, there is provision for a certain number of hours of free childcare for every child, which is funded by the state. Northern Ireland, under the Barnett formula, gets a consequential of that. It calculates what is that cost per head in England and says we will give Northern Ireland that same amount of money. Unfortunately, that money just goes into the pot and no, there is no commitment. That money is not earmarked or safeguarded for childcare and simply goes into the general public service budget. At a time when all budgets have been so constrained, introducing a new programme of childcare has not been able to get a call on finances.

The labour market report we did last month was just a North-South comparison on a few of the key measures. The next phase of that report will look at the gender differences and will drill down a bit more into the economic inactivity to be able to put more meat on the bones of that one. That is firmly our intention of where we are going on that but that naturally feeds into the childcare issue.