Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

These payments are now delayed and they need to be paid. They speak to a fundamental systematic problem with how this pension is being run. This dates back to section 46 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983. Back then, the workers were Civil Servants. The terms of this Act were to ensure that it was a clear wish that all sides if necessary should guarantee transferred staff that their tenure of office and security of employment would be as good, strong and safe as in their present Civil Service capacity and that the terms of their pension would never be less than the Civil Service pension, that they should always be benchmarked against that. That is in the 1983 Act. Therefore, any worker who divested on the divestment date of 31 December 1983 should be protected. The superannuation scheme itself came into being in 1990. Since then, even though the Act itself has been amended over 100 times, nothing has diminished what section 46 says, which is that the pensions of the workers should not be less than a Civil Service pension and workers should not be treated any less favourably than their entitlement by reference to the Civil Service regulations that were enforced on 31 December 1983.

There has been advice from Attorneys General on this. There has been ombudsman commentary on this. There has been independent legal advice on this. These workers, who are now pensioners, are being left behind in an inflation and cost-of-living crisis. They are on low, fixed incomes. They are not entitled to a State pension due to the terms of their pension. Therefore, these workers do not get any double payments or any measures that the Government has brought in through the social protection system. They do not get those benefits. This is a structural problem which should be resolved and the Minister has the power to do it.

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