Dr. Karina Doorley:

The Deputy mentioned the corporate tax receipts. In all truth where would we have been, over the last few years and through the last few crises, without them? It was great to have that money in the bank to be able to respond to the Covid crisis and the cost-of-living crisis and pay these one-off payments. However, as the Deputy has rightly said, we have lots of challenges coming up that are long-term in nature. The answer to some of this is going to be to spend more money in order to build more houses, reorientate our economy or whatever it is. We cannot rely on corporation tax receipts for that. One facet of this has to be a look at the report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare and what measures in that report make sense to implement for now in order to raise more money in a sustainable medium- to long-term way.

The Deputy referenced the long list of challenges that we face. I would add childcare to the list of things we need to spend money on. The Deputy mentioned that we should be reducing barriers to access to education. In the early years also, access to available, affordable, good quality childcare already starts to reduce inequalities and affords equality of opportunity to many children. If it is left too late, they simply will not go to university even if the barriers are not there. I would definitely add childcare to the list.