Over the past 30 years, there have been periods of boom and bust, but average household incomes have grown strongly in Ireland. The distribution of household income has been broadly stable over this period, so that there has been substantial growth for low-, middle- and high-income households....

This paper examines the potential role for increasing social welfare rates, along with tax credits and bands, in line with price or wage inflation - a process known as indexation. Ireland currently has a default policy of no increases in line with inflation, with ad hoc changes instead announced...