Mr. Rónán Hession:

Absolutely. For example, sometimes when you are looking at those issues, the income support is part of it. That is why services are also important. For example, our Department provides the hot school meals programmes. If, for whatever reason, the money is not getting to the children in households, there is a support whereby they can get hot food in primary school, and there are other supports that can try to help. What we see in the poverty statistics is that Ireland relies quite heavily on income supports. A lot of the heavy lifting is done through the social welfare system. In other countries, there are different mixes, whether it is income supports or services and so on.

We do need that mix. It is for exactly that reason. Money will only go so far but for some people it is actually the direct intervention that is more suitable.