Mr. Seamus Coffey:

That would certainly be beyond the scope of the role of the fiscal council. Before I wore my fiscal council hat, I sat on the Commission on Pensions, which would have examined the possible role benchmarking could play in the Irish system. It can create difficulties. The UK had what became known as the triple lock, whereby they tied increases in state pensions to wages, inflation or a minimum of 2.5%. There were periods in which it led to increases beyond inflation. I realise the Deputy is talking about increases lower than inflation. The fiscal council has no view on this and it is not part of its remit. Benchmarking and indexing are useful for social welfare payments, however, because they should keep up with what is happening elsewhere in the economy. Doing it formally, by taking the decision-making ability from the Oireachtas or politicians, is a bigger step, but doing a benchmarking exercise and seeing where the payments stand are important. That is a personal view rather than a view of the fiscal council.