Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have acknowledged from the outset of this Government's term in office that I regard the pensions of former officeholders and some retired senior public servants as excessive. I sought to deal with the matter virtually immediately when I took up my current position. That is why I introduced the additional pension reduction in the 2011 FEMPI legislation. It is true that I sought the advice of the Attorney General on how far I could go in that legislation. I went as far as I could, without putting the entire FEMPI edifice in danger, by increasing the pension reduction rate from 12% to 20%. Whether we like it or not, the formal advices are that pension benefits constitute a vested property right and are therefore protected by the Constitution. For that reason, there is a limit on what we can do. There are also constraints within the FEMPI architecture itself. I have explained this to the Deputy on several occasions. The argument that has to be made when introducing FEMPI legislation is that it is required in the national interest. Any FEMPI measure must accrue sufficient money to justify it as being required and must have wider application beyond a tiny cohort of the citizenry. To the best of my ability and to the greatest extent that I could, I crafted the legislation in a way that met those constitutional imperatives. Objectively, that is a fact. I share the Deputy's concern. The money involved is small in terms of reducing the overall national debt or solving the nation's finances. The Deputy is right when she says this is important to people who want fairness. We will strive again and again to find ways of doing this. If the new pay deal is agreed, there will be an incremental reduction of 5% in addition to how far we have already gone to claw back more.

See this speech in context