Professor Eilion?ir Flynn:

These very important questions on how we can reimagine the system. While social activation or economic activation could be useful ways to reframe it there is a risk of just renaming existing practices without changing the underlying processes unless we are committed to a broader imagining. Deputy Tully spoke earlier about going back to the roots of what social protection is for. It is to enable people to live a life of dignity regardless of what their employment status might be and to recognise a broad range of contributions that people can make that might not be in the form of paid employment.

They could have caring responsibilities or might be volunteering in their local communities. They might be a great friend and supporter to people in their networks, and we need to understand and value that as well. People need to live a life of dignity, regardless of what their economic or potential economic contribution might be. We all acknowledge that economic contribution is not a good way to measure human life and human endeavour. I encourage everyone to think more deeply about the purpose of social protection and to ask if we can get away from measuring people in terms of their potential economic contribution, while at the same time acknowledging that many people are unemployed as a result of disability-based discrimination and that we need to address the root causes of that as well. That would be my suggestion on that front.