Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have some questions for Mr. Johnson. I must be honest. I am slightly intrigued by his outlining of indexation in terms of the politically acceptable way of increasing certain rates and his description of the fuel tax and its failure to increase in line with inflation. I will be honest. The reason some of us here are interested in this issue is because during our budgetary cycle, welfare increases are often based on the political issues of the day and not necessarily on fiscal metrics in any way. Could Mr. Johnson talk about the mechanisms by which when even if you have an indexation system, it is set to one side during the course of political action? He mentioned that there have been freezes on particular welfare rates. Are there other mechanisms by which basically indexation is set aside?