Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Fleming’s question is difficult for people to understand and it goes back to my point about the grace period. The pension will be calculated on the basis of the date of retirement. It will be the rate of pay that pertained during the grace period of the person’s retirement. That changed with each new FEMPI Act. The actual reduction in people’s pensions will end one day when the emergency is over but the calculation of the pension will not end. The people the Deputy mentions, who are paying a bigger PSPR on a higher calculated pension, will receive that higher calculated pension to the day they die. The pensions of the others, including every member of the Government when we retire, will be calculated on a reduced rate because they will be calculated on the rate of pay that pertained in 2013, which was considerably less than the rate of pay pertaining to our predecessors in government. Many retired at the last election with much better salaries. That filters down to everybody. The calculation is based on the actual date a person retired and is linked to the rate of pay captured in the grace period of the time. It would be shown more clearly in a table.

In response to Deputy McDonald, the import of her first amendment is that no public servant with an income above €65,000 would have a cent restored. She can dress it up and argue it and put words in someone's mouth as she talks about it but that would be the impact should I accept the amendment. Not only is that wrong but it would not sustain a constitutional challenge because when we emerge from this emergency, we cannot arbitrarily hold on to a cap on some people’s salary because she determines it so. In essence, Deputy McDonald and Sinn Féin are saying that deputy principals or principals of primary and secondary schools, directors of nursing, senior gardaí, senior workers in local government or a whole range of other people should not get a cent back.

I have tried several times to explain but will try again, because I have sent the Deputy the table, the impact of the Lansdowne Road agreement. The restoration over three years, 2016 to 2018, will pre-eminently impact low-paid workers. Someone on €20,000 will get €1,625 back, or 8.1% of that salary. Someone at the top of the public sector pay scale, earning €185,000 will get back €1,000, or half of 1% of that salary. I will not quibble about the point that the Deputy is conflating the Lansdowne Road and Haddington Road agreements.

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