Dr. Tom McDonnell:

It would be available to everyone. It would not depend on employment; it would depend on income. In fact, one of the other recommendations is that all of the welfare payments would ultimately be tied to income, and that they would taper down very gently with income to make sure that there would be no employment disincentives and also to ensure that they would be adequate up through the system. Of course, they would be greatly enhanced as well.

In terms of the working age payment, as the Deputy is aware, currently, the working family payment does not apply to people who do not have children. In this case, the idea is that the enhanced working age payment would be tapered with income and would not look at whether there are children in a household. The enhanced child benefit payment would deal with the additional cost of having children in the household. Certainly, the NERI would support those recommendations. Perhaps Mr. Nugent or Mr. Smart would like to add to that.