Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

In April I tabled a question in which I asked the Minister to provide a rate band analysis of all State pension contributory awards since 1 September 2012, broken down by number of awards, gender and percentage of overall awards. Her reply contained a tabular statement which was quite detailed and showsed that 27% of those in the 20-29 rate band were female and that 8% were male and that 9% of those in the 15-19 rate band were female, while 3% were male. I forwarded this information to the ICTU and received a reply which thanked me for my interest in revealing it. The ICTU pointed out at the time that these changes would impact unfairly and disproportionately on women, particularly low-paid female workers. It also protested, in the strongest terms, at the grossly unfair way the rise in pension and age entitlement had been handled. Congress intends to continue to fight on these issues. Those who represent workers are of the view that the Minister has, in terms of the change in the pension rate banding, discriminated against women, particularly those in receipt of low pay. She is going to be challenged on this matter in the future.

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