Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have a final question, a general one. There has been much discussion on participation income and UBI. As was identified, UBI can be viewed differently from the right and the left. From the left, you can portray it as the safety net to catch all, whereas, from a right-wing perspective, you can offer the money so as to purchase services. The flip side of the coin is universal basic services. We spoke about the Donnchadh O'Malley moment, for example. That was one of the critical inflection points in Irish history in that a basic service was made free at the point of access and universal. Where will there be more Donnchadh O'Malley moments in terms of universal basic services? Healthcare is an area that jumps out at me. Our care economy probably needs to make a jump to universal basic services such that the State will intervene if one needs care at a certain point.

UBI is a very simple and attractive idea. It may be very complex in its outworking but the basic tenet is very simple and is subject to quite a lot of discussion as a result. I do not believe universal basic services are as easy a sell but I suspect they might be more impactful. I am basing this more on a hunch than anything else. I was straying wildly off course in referring to means testing but I wanted to give the experts an opportunity to express a view on it, if they had one.