Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister explain why, when this legislation is completed, one retired public servant with a gross pension of €60,000 will have a public service pension reduction, PSPR, of €1,320 and a pension in payment, subject to the usual taxes, of €58,680, while another retired public servant on the exact same pension will have a PSPR of €5,280? The second person will receive a pension in payment of €54,720. According to the Minister's reply to my question yesterday, the figures go very high, above the salary rates we receive. Taking two people on a pension of €70,000, one will pay a PSPR of €6,980 and the other will pay PSPR of €1,820, all because they retired on different dates. Some will have retired before 29 February 2012, others subsequently.

I know the Minister will justify his answer by saying that before they retired, they were on different gross pay rates. People find it hard to understand how two public servants on the same pension may retire within a day of one another but the difference in their PSPR is €4,000. The Minister may link it to their salary but those people could live for another 30 or 40 years, if God spares them, and one will be more severely disadvantaged than the other. There should be a simple approach. The Minister said he has the principles of a trade unionist and spoke at length of a rate for the job. There is such a thing as a rate for retirement as well. If two people get €60,000 on retirement, they should pay the same rate of PSPR.

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