Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

A question was asked about total household income. We do not have the capacity to look at total household income. In some countries, notably Austria, the social welfare system is built around total household income. This means one includes in the income calculation payments that people in farming receive, which would be a significant amount in this country in some cases. One also includes university fees for those who receive a grant. Sometimes people think of total household income as being only income from social welfare payments when, in fact, households can receive income from a wide variety of sources. We do not have a system such as that in place in Austria and our social welfare system will not have the capacity to operate in that manner for a long time.