Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry for butting in and butting out. There are three meetings going on so forgive me if I repeat what I have said before. I will say what I want to say in one fell swoop.

I always hear how we can improve the systems and that we should try to do that. My worry is that, before the economic crash in this country, numerous people were quoting from time to time that we were one of the wealthiest countries in the world and that we should be doing more of this, that and the other, and we had the private sector and some of the public sector saying we deserved more just because we deserved it. As we know, things do not work out that way and they did not work out that way. My question is this. How does the linking of taxation and social welfare, for example, give the latitude to the Government that it may need to respond to a particular situation without disrupting the whole fabric of taxation in particular, given the extent to which indexation might impact on the freedom of Government to direct budgetary policy?

I have not carried out a comparison myself in recent times but I have had some private discussions with constituents in regard to pensions from other jurisdictions. How do we fare in comparison with other jurisdictions such as, for example, the UK and in the rest of Europe? Are we behind the curve and do we need to urgently improve the situation?

With regard to the reduction in inflation, to which Mr. Johnson made reference, how does it affect the general population if the indexation is working as it is supposed to work? How smoothly can it reduce, or is it likely to reduce, payments to people who receive State pensions in the short term?