Dr. Adele Bergin:

Professors Doyle and McGuinness have identified the key areas in any potential Green Paper, including how the delivery of key services would change. I would add that there would need to be a timeframe put on it. Are we talking about the short, medium or long term?

The Senator touched on people being scared of the costs involved. That is in large part because we are starting at the wrong side before presenting what the picture will be or will potentially be, or the range of possible outcomes. That needs to be defined first before you can talk about the costs and-or benefits. In some areas, there will be a cost. In others, there could be benefits. The whole thing needs to be mapped out first and then you can start with what people are talking about at the moment. In some senses, it would be nice if we flipped the whole thing on its head, started at the beginning and dealt with some of the questions around costs and benefits towards the end.