Dr. Helen Johnston:

However, my point is this is not simply an Irish phenomenon, it is also an international phenomenon.

As for obstacles in the tax and welfare system, I have mentioned a number of them already. For example, people in receipt of social welfare and who avail of the medical card lose the medical card when they take up a job. People may be in receipt of a housing supplement but lose it when they take up a job. A further example involves people in receipt of jobseeker's benefit who then move from that onto jobseeker's allowance, which is means tested. If such people have means or if their partner is working, they may not get that payment, which then disbars them from participating in a number of different jobseeker or employment support schemes. There are several disincentives and they may also lose their child-----