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

The Minister appears to be suggesting that this is favourable from the point of view of future pensioners in that any changes to future entitlements will be upward only. He has stated also that there is nothing about this change about which we should be concerned. However, section 4 - this point has already been made so I will try not to labour it - provides that the Minister shall decide when an increase in pensions under this section is to be paid having regard to movements in the consumer price index, including the timing and means by which any increase is paid. This gives the Minister and any future Minister total flexibility in that he or she could chose not to pay because of particular circumstances which he or she believes justifies delaying payment. It certainly creates the potential for a lag behind the increases in inflation or those which would derive if the current scheme was retained, under which there is no automatic link between salary and pension increases. This provision provides for an opt-out by the Minister. I accept that might not be the Minister's intention. However, in my view the Bill as drafted gives the Minister enormous flexibility.

The Minister may say that the Government has no intention of degrading the pensions of existing public servants. I am sure the Government wishes to avoid any confrontation with the public service unions and that that is the reason these changes apply to new entrants only. However, under the section which gives the Minister the power by order to extend the application of this new regime, under which pension increases will be linked to CPI rather than salary increases, the Minister or a future Minister could apply this change to current public servants. This could happen given the fairly extraordinary times in which we are living, where dramatic fluctuations are occurring in the economic and financial environment. Once the Minister has the power to apply this new mechanism of calculating pension entitlements and increases, he or any future Minister could impose that on existing public servants. The Minister knows that he or a future Minister could do that. It is a serious prospect. For that reason, I oppose this measure and believe workers and trade unions should be well aware that this threat exists.

Given the pressure which I suspect the Minister will come under from the troika to meet targets over the coming years and the strong likelihood of the economic situation deteriorating further, the possibility of the provisions of this Bill being used to attack and degrade the pension entitlements of existing public servants is very real.

See this speech in context