Ms Josephine Feehily:

Yes, a few other aspects were raised by the Deputy, including the triple lock and the non-revenue sources. The Deputy is correct about the non-revenue sources. It was essentially the non-labour revenue sources, and that was part of our not wanting to overly impact on the labour market.

We did examine the triple lock, and concluded that the triple lock can result in pensions being increased ahead of the curve. The Deputy may recall that at the time there was some fairly intense debate in the UK about what is really an intergenerational issue in the context of the national budget. The triple lock seemed to prevent the most equitable outcome, so we did not recommend a triple lock for that reason. We certainly feel that by setting up the independent standing body, and by giving it the job of periodically reviewing the form of indexation, as well as the mathematics in that regard, that the form of indexation might need to evolve over time. The most important thing, though, is to implement this first version, and then to review it.