Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

——and one realises what a nightmare it is. We continue to work on that.

According to the Central Statistics Office, the overall consumer price index increased by 12% from the start of 2002 to November 2005. In the same period, energy products increased by 41%. Liquid heating fuel is up by 70%, and solid fuel by 20%. The 41% figure is something of a crude average. The budget increase that we have introduced is 55%.

Regarding Deputy Boyle's point on indexation, one must be careful. If we had indexed welfare payments years ago when people in this House on all sides made strong pleas regarding payments of all sorts, without improving on them those payments would now be substantially lower than they are. The CPI in the last 11 years went up 35%, and old age pensions rose by 85%. Wages went up 63% in that time. Over that 11-year period, old age welfare payments have increased by at least three times as much as the consumer price index. One should be very careful about indexing something since it can have the opposite effect, holding back what people might otherwise receive. Future Governments might take the view that something is indexed to the CPI and leave it. We try to ensure that all payments reach a point where they are more related to average earnings than to the CPI. If one does any indexing, one must try to index them to earnings. Then they are at least raised in line with them.

I know the Deputy means well and wishes to ensure that we do not fall into the trap of a few years ago when we did not touch the fuel allowance for many years. However, the reason for that too was that we wanted to put money into the rates. We hoped that, by increasing them strongly and leaving people themselves the income, they could decide what to spend it on rather than be too prescriptive and say that one must have a certain amount for fuel and other matters, with conditions attached. If one gives them the main rate and gets the maximum into their pockets, one can let them make decisions about how they want to spend money. That was the policy of recent years. It was with some reluctance that I reversed that this year and went for the fuel, but I could see the pressure in the House, and Deputies were adamant. I took the point that the 41% increase was quite exceptional. The rise was 20% for solid fuel, and we tried to respond.

However, we must discuss whether that is the way to proceed in future and whether we should continue to prescribe all those little bits and pieces that people must get and how they must qualify for €20 here and €30 there. We could also take a giant leap and give them the money up front, saying that they are all old and wise enough to spend it on whatever services they need for themselves.

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