Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

From where does the benchmark of 34% to which Mr. Lawler referred come? Is it standard across Europe that pensions should be 34% of average earnings? It is not a lot. He stated that average earnings are €44,000 at the moment. It is not really a lot. What is the particular rationale for that figure? Is it just tradition? Where does it come from? Is there any variation across Europe in that benchmark of pensions being 34% of average earnings? In other words, is it more or less, in general, in other countries? Does Mr. Lawler have any sense of those comparisons?

On the issue of other payments, as other Deputies have noted, much of this discussion is focused on pensions and the possible indexing of pensions against inflation or wages, or a combination of the two, or other indexes, but not other payments. If I heard Mr. Lawler correctly, he stated it is more complicated in those areas. Is it done elsewhere? I am not sure why he would say it is more complicated. I take the point that there are many different types of payments, but all these welfare or pension payments are quite low and people who are on them are pretty much at the lowest levels of income possible. I am not sure why there would be a rationale for not indexing all social welfare payments in some shape or form to ensure they retain some value or do not fall behind inflation or that a gap between those payments and average wages is not widened. I am curious to know whether this is done internationally. Why are we not looking at all of these payments to ensure they are indexed? Obviously, this is a live issue, given the current inflation rates. Certainly the €5 flat rate increase introduced in the budget seems very inadequate in the face of the level of inflation and the rising cost of living we are seeing at the moment for all recipients of pensions and social welfare payments, so we need to do something to make sure these payments do not fall behind racing levels of inflation if they occur.

I understand the difficulty. If it is pinned to wages and inflation is racing ahead of wages, there is a problem. If it is pinned to inflation but not to wages, the gap between average wages and pension or social welfare payments potentially widens if wages increase ahead of inflation.

It seems some combination of both those elements would probably be the best, although I am interested in hearing an opinion on that. I cannot see it being more complicated. I would imagine it would be best to have all those options available to us and then have some sort of hybrid that would still be flexible enough to take into account changing circumstances. There would be a minimum level of indexation but also discretion to deal with unusual circumstances or particularly marked changes that may leave the basic method of benchmarking inadequate in dealing with problems emerging either in terms of inflation, the cost of living or increasing gaps between social welfare and pension payments and earnings in society. Those are my thoughts and questions.