Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

Absolutely and I agree with that. There are many ways in which we can do that but this Government and its predecessor have simply refused to do that. Notwithstanding the fact that Ministers on a recurring basis warn us of the concentrated risks, especially around corporation tax, it is deeply reckless and irresponsible.

On the question of benchmarking and social protection rates, I have been persuaded that it needs to happen for all kinds of reasons. We have effectively had the situation over recent years where personal taxation rates - PAYE, USC and so on - have been benchmarked and there has been indexation for wage growth. I take that into account, but the corollary of that has not happened. We have not benchmarking of social protection rates. That is a kind of dangerous territory because when you do that, you want to do both in tandem.

Does Mr McGeady agree that this is the best option, given there is a commitment to indexation more or less on the tax side but not on the social protection side? It is socially irresponsible, in my view. People who depend on the State for their income are waiting every summer to see leaks through the media about what the rate of their pension or disability payment will be. There should be clarity and it would be a better way of allocating resources. There should be a natural commitment to saying, "This is what we are going to do", and that it is bedded into the existing levels of service, ELS, side of the budget.

We also have the political debates about tax spending elsewhere. That is the meat and drink of politics; it should be. Does Mr. McGeady agree that if the Government is benchmarking income tax rates and so on, that it should do the same for social protection rates? We also want to make sure that there are not disincentives to working. He might just comment on that.