Ms Mairéad de Buitléir:

I am representing the RTÉ retired staff association but I am standing in for our chairperson, Mr. Tony O'Connor, who sends his apologies. I express our sincere gratitude to this Oireachtas committee for taking the time and having the interest to meet us today. We are a group of retired staff associations from a number of semi-State organisations. We are people who devoted our entire working lives providing infrastructural services for the State. We represent a great number of people who provided these services for the benefit of this country. However, although we are a large group of retirees, semi-State pensioners do not have any recognised mechanism or organisation to deal with concerns and grievances with former employers. We are really locked out of all the machinery of this State. A retired semi-State pensioner is set adrift once he or she walks out that door. The Pensions Authority does not deal with complaints from pensioner organisations and neither does the Pensions Ombudsman, industrial relations nor the trustees from our pension funds. Legal remedies are cost-prohibitive for pensioners. As it currently stands, semi-State pensioners have no avenue for representation or access to arbitration. This must now be corrected in order to seek a voice for our members at the negotiating table and the facility for arbitration.

It is not commonly understood that most semi-State or State organisation pensioners do not qualify for old age pensions or any of the benefits associated with it, including dental, optical or aural benefits. There are a few exceptions. Those of us who were in RTÉ do not benefit from any of these. We were not allowed to pay a full PRSI stamp. There is a myth out there that RTÉ pensioners have gold-plated pensions but the reality is that a fifth of our pensioners are on an income of €12,000 yearly. We have not received any pension increase since 2005. In the same period, contributory old age recipients have had their pensions increased from €179 to €248, an increase of 38.5%. They also received a double payment in the Christmas period of 2017 and another double payment due this coming Christmas 2018. In the same period, our pension decreased by 2.5% because of the Government levy, and that will be imposed on us for the rest of our lives. The consumer price index has seen an increase of 14% since 2005, so we have endured a loss value in our money of 16.5% since 2005.

Earlier this year RTÉ’s pension scheme actuary had provided for a 2.25% increase following actuarial valuation, solvency and providing for the minimum funding standards. Despite these hurdles being met we have not received €1 of an increase. Our association has made a number of representations on behalf of our members to RTÉ but we have heard nothing back. Clarity is required as to who is ultimately responsible for public sector pension schemes. Is it the companies or the State? There are variations in each of these schemes in how they are governed and in how much oversight is involved by the Departments. In our case the Department of Finance and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment is involved. We need absolute guarantees that our concerns will be addressed in the forthcoming amendments to the pensions legislation. Looking forward to the future, our members must have the resources to feed, clothe, stay warm and to be able to meet their health needs as they progress through their older years.