Dr. Tom McDonnell:

I do not think there is any harm in looking beyond the Department to the Parliamentary Budget Office or the Revenue Commissioners. There would be a lot of human capital there in terms of knowledge, including people who have retired from the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance. There is a significant cohort of people there with immense bodies of knowledge. I certainly think there would be value in bringing it out to committees like this as well. I would be very cautious about bringing it out to a consultancy firm or anything like that, or any body or agency that might have a vested interest, or those who designed the system. I did not say that. I would be very cautious about that.

Academics and consultants, and so forth, should be brought in to sessions like this to have these two-way conversations; but the hard work should be done internally within Departments, but also with Revenue and with the Parliament itself. To do that would be quite a significant body of work.