Ms Cora O'Brien:

Obviously, child care is a massive issue. As the previous contributor said, the research that has been done on marginal tax rates has largely been carried out in the US. The analysis there is that it did not have a huge impact, but the US economy is massively different from Ireland's. In the US economy there is not nearly as much cross-border movement in labour. What is driving ours and where we need to get our money is exports. There is also foreign direct investment, which we cannot forget in the debate. There is huge movement in and out of the country by a very mobile labour market. There has not been enough research carried out on what is the right income tax policy for a very small open economy. I would welcome some economic analysis. We cannot do that as we are not an economic body, but we would definitely support the right income tax policy for Ireland for the next five years. All we can go on is where we are in terms of other countries, and we are certainly out of line with other countries at that upper talent end, what our members tell us about the dealings they have with businesses and things such as the PwC pulse survey and so forth. That is the evidence we have, but we would welcome some economic analysis of it. However, it has to be for the type of economy we have.