Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Joan Collins. As part of the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025, the Government committed to finalising an approach for the benchmarking and indexation of pension payments and to consider and prepare a report for Government on the potential application of the benchmarking approach on a wider basis to other welfare payments. I am happy to share that report with the Deputy when it is complete. Work is ongoing on it.

In September, I announced a series of landmark reforms to the State pension system. The measures provided by the Government are in response to the recommendations from the Commission on Pensions and represent the biggest ever structural reform of the Irish pension system. As part of this, a smoothed-earnings method to calculate a benchmarked, indexed rate of State pension payment will be introduced as an input to the annual budget process and will be submitted to the Government by the Minister for Social Protection in September each year, starting in 2023. As the Government has approved this approach to pension payments, potential benchmarking approaches to other social welfare payments will also be examined.

We are doing this as part of the roadmap for social inclusion and I hope to publish it early in quarter 2 of next year. While I am not accepting the amendment, I have already committed to prepare a report on the benchmarking and indexation of social welfare rates. I give the Deputy my word that it will be done.

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