Mr. Ciarán Lawler:

The Department of Social Protection would not have responsibility for occupational or public sector pensions. They do not come under the remit of this benchmarking indexation process. The focus has been on State pensions to date. When we turn our attention to working-age payments, that will be a much more complex area. There are many different rates of payment. For example, people on jobseeker's payments are on different rates to those on invalidity pensions or on a carer's payment. It is more complex to determine where to set the benchmark when dealing with more than one payment.