Ms Michelle Murphy:

I will sidestep some of those questions and hand over to either Mr. Healy or Dr. McDonnell. I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett. Obviously, we are looking at a benchmark against wages. The Deputy's question actually goes back to a point we made when we appeared before an Oireachtas committee a number of years ago with NERI. It is about thresholds and how we decommodify things and the issue came up in terms of the social wage. These are things Dr. McDonnell mentioned earlier and to which Deputy Mairéad Farrell alluded, that is, to subsidise childcare and public transport and then provide affordable housing, be it social housing, cost-rental or housing that is affordable for somebody to buy. If we can come to terms with those three issues primarily first, that will go a huge way towards supporting those people on social welfare but also those people the Deputy is talking about, that is, those workers on low incomes or minimum wage or even above minimum wage, which probably would be considered a good income if prices were not rising at such a rate and if the cost of housing were not so high. If we can get to that point then the pressures on the cost of living would certainly be lower.

We also have to look at subsidising those things that would rise, that is, the biggest multipliers both economically and socially. Those are the issues. It is childcare and public transport. It is looking at investment in education at all levels both from early childhoodright up now to skills development, retraining and lifelong learning. It gets back to the cost of housing as well, which was one of the big drivers in terms of the cost of living but it puts pressure on wages and on employers as well.

The Deputy also mentioned healthcare in terms of universal access. We have consistently pointed out that Ireland is the only country in the EU that does not have primary care that is free at the point of access. This is something for which we have consistently advocated. The rolling out of the community health networks and what should be a commitment to roll out and fund the infrastructure for Sláintecare would be key here.

In response to the issue of housing, we need to go beyond social housing and look at cost-rental, affordable housing and how we approach housing overall. I note that the first progress report on Housing for All was published today. We in Social Justice Ireland would be concerned at some of the issues that have been pushed back. The issue of land value has been pushed back to December 2022. There are other issues, again, in terms of how we count homelessness and other things. We seem to already be pushing back the key issues we should be getting to grips with in the Housing for All plan. It is not even a year old and yet we are pushing issues back to the end of this year. I will pass over to my colleague, Dr. McDonnell.