Dr. Tom McDonnell:

I absolutely take the Chairman's point. Perhaps I am not articulating my position properly. We should see the welfare component, and the benchmarking thereof, as an automatic thing that happens and is looked at empirically to assess adequacy for all different households. It is most relevant for welfare payments, which include pensions, child benefit and, potentially and ideally, second-tier chid benefit, and all the working age payments. They would, in essence, be linked to an adequacy benchmark over the longer term.

We agree that the measures that the Cathaoirleach described in terms of reducing the cost of public services were good but we would like to see them being made permanent rather than once-off. A once-off reduction in cost is good but inflation was at 7.8% in 2022. Rather than saying it is 5.4% this year, it is actually 13.2%. Then it is 16.4%. The once-off payment is gone and one's cost are still higher.