Mr. Paul Johnson:

I will give the Deputy a flavour of where we are in the UK. The cost of state pensions has not risen as a factor in national income in the past decade because the female state pension age has risen from 60 to 66 and the male pension age from 65 to 66 over that period. What we have had, therefore, is a saving, as it were, because we have been increasing state pension ages, and a cost associated with the triple lock has been in place and they have been broadly offsetting over that period. Looking forward 20 years, we will see the state pension - I forget the precise numbers but I am referring to a triple lock scenario - taking up another 2% or 3% of national income within 20 or 30 years. National income is quite a lot compared with an increase in line with earnings, where there is an increase of about half that amount, so indexation does matter. If the increase were in line only with prices, that would go down further. As for the UK budget sustainability, if earnings indexation of pensions is done and we continue with planned increases in the pension age, we are adding a percentage point or two to national income and to public spending when we and, I think, many advanced countries are facing bigger challenges in the healthcare system, but that is a topic for another day.