Ms Niamh Callaghan:

-----to go beyond pensions. I mentioned the roadmap for pensions and that that was included in there. We have a method in terms of the smoothed earning approach. Obviously that would all have to be discussed if we were to go any further. There would be other policy considerations as well; it is not just social welfare. It is a really significant policy shift and as Mr. McGann alluded to earlier, there are issues with data, the methodology and how we do it. It is something that needs a lot of consideration before it is taken forward.

On the once-off payments, this is obviously quite a different context. We have had Covid and Ukraine before but the cost of living is something we have just had to deal with in the last year. The once-offs were something other countries also did. We are not the only ones who have taken these types of measures. We have been pretty much in line with what other jurisdictions have done.