Childless people should pay extra taxes in order to encourage more people to start a family.
That's according to Dr Paul Morland, demographer at St Antony's College at Oxford University in England.
He told Newstalk Breakfast this system already essentially exists.
"It's not actually that strange: after all, people who don't have children - in the UK anyway, and I imagine it's the same in the Irish Republic - don't get Child Benefit.
"And in many countries in Europe, such as France and Luxembourg, you get get major tax breaks for having children.
"So actually all I'm proposing is what they have, say, in France - which is a higher tax rate, which is then alleviated somewhat to help people who have children... who are bearing that financial burden".
On people who cannot have children, Dr Morland believes more help should be given to them.
"I think every help should be given to people who want to children, I think we should spend more assisting people on IVF for example.
"Today people who don't have children don't get Child Benefit... there are 1,001 reasons why they might not have children.
"But I've never heard anyone say 'It's so unfair I don't get Child Benefit because.., I don't want children, I can't have children'.
"So it seems perfectly reasonable to me that helping people who actually do have the burden and the pleasure of children through the tax system and the benefits system is perfectly reasonable.
"That is something we're already doing, I'm simply arguing that we move towards a more continental model where we do it a little bit more".
And he says the reasons for this are down to ageing populations.
"I think we do need more people - and here in the UK we are increasingly short of labour - everyone from bin men to brain surgeons.
"The data in the Census shows the world's population growing, people of working age are beginning to tail off.
"The biggest growth is in the 70s+ - they need a lot of care - the biggest drop-off is in the under-5s.
"So we've got a problem coming down the track", he adds.
