Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

The figures mask how people at the top can benefit from percentage increases to a much greater level than people at the bottom. Percentage figures do not tell the complete story about how these issues affect everybody. It is also wrong to say that pay is ahead of inflation, as people seek pay increases in order to deal with rises in the cost of the standards of living. The consumer price index does not always reflect this fully, particularly how the rise in the cost of living affects people at different levels in society. It is a much more vague process that is subject to factors other than the automatic link that currently exists between pension entitlements and pay in the public sector.

In other sections it is made clear that all of this, in any event, is in the gift of the Minister. What is the connection between the consumer price index and increases in pension entitlements? There is no automatic link and it is up to the Minister to decide if and when any increases in pension entitlements are given. That is a serious deterioration in pension entitlements for future pensioners from the public service when compared to the current guaranteed system.

I disagree with some of the details in the way Deputy Fleming made his contribution but the substantial point is correct. The bottom line is that the Government will make a massive saving on the back of future public sector pensioners who will see a very serious degradation in pension entitlements. As has been stated by me and Deputy McDonald, among others, we would have no problem if this was the case for the very highly paid public servants who walk off with very handsome public sector pensions. These are politicians, Secretaries General, etc. The bulk of these savings will be made on the back of degrading pensions of people who are, for the most part, low and middle income earners and whose consequent pension entitlements are not that generous. It is another austerity attack to make life worse for future pensioners.

It is a severe indictment of our society that not only will the young people in future be worse off than their parents but the pensioners of the future will be worse off than the pensioners from the last generation. It is a rotten indictment of what is happening in our economy and society and the way in which we are heading.

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