May I question the assumption that the baseline should automatically be changed to reflect the subsequent decisions of the remuneration board? Because I would question whether that is the way in which other public sector bodies operate. Very often, they'll prepare their budget on one set of assumptions and then things will change and they'll have to absorb those costs and make savings elsewhere.

Just to take an example, in the new pension arrangements across the UK for previously opted-out pension schemes, such as in the NHS, it's a very big issue. Suddenly, they had to pay an extra 2 per cent national insurance, but that didn't mean they got a 2 per cent uplift in their budget to compensate for that. So, to the extent that the external frame has changed, and the remuneration board has decided that, of our budget, a somewhat greater proportion should go to Members with more flexibility to spend on their staff, I would question whether we should, or, indeed, whether the previous finance report—I was a member of the committee at that point—implied that there should be some adjustment for that. Couldn't we instead look at where savings might be made elsewhere, to the extent that Members have greater flexibility over their allowances and staffing allowances, could they take on perhaps some of the things where the Commission had been providing services before?

I question again, just as another example, that the amount we're all having paid into our pensions by the Assembly Commission is going up by about 3 per cent per year. Again, that's something we had to consider and how to adjust it. Why are we putting our money into investments where we know they're going to fall in value over time? Shouldn't we actually be taking decisions that mean there has to be less money put in because the investment return might be higher?

And I think the most important thing, and I just wonder if you agree, chairing the Finance Committee, is that the rest of the public sector has had significant austerity when our budget's being growing quite significantly. I thought, as the Finance Committee, that we took a view that henceforth we should be like the rest of the public sector.