Dr. Nat O'Connor:

Age Action would also look at the top level recommendation in chapter 4 that we need to slowly and progressively build up the tax base. Part of the point of having a Commission on Taxation and Welfare is not only to make technical fixes to things that are not working, and there are plenty of these in the report, but also to grasp the nettle that we have a lot of needs in society. We have an ageing population and we need to keep the State pension sustainable. We have ambitions for hospital beds, housing and other areas. It is important that we can take the politics out of the thorny issue of raising taxation in a sustainable way that is socially acceptable.

It comes back to the earlier point about the social contract. However, we have to pay for things. We endorse the high level recommendation that, as a society, we will have to slowly but progressively increase the tax base in order to pay for the things we need and all benefit from.