Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Notwithstanding the Minister's answer, there is still an enormous gap because of the rules around the State contributory pension and indeed rules around pension schemes. I will give an example of a former Aer Lingus colleague of mine who took early retirement. His pension was €25,615 per year. He celebrated his 65th birthday in January 2017 but it was not much of a celebration because his pension was reduced by €15,150, a staggering drop of over €10,000 or over €200 per week. He did not have an entitlement to jobseeker's benefit because the six to nine months were used up and he was not entitled to an allowance because his pension, even though it had been butchered, was inadequate. Like many others, this man had worked all his adult life bar a couple of years at the end and contributed significantly to the system. There is an anomaly here and we need some form of financial bridging system to meet the gap because a gap is there and many people like this man are falling into it.

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