asked the Minister for the Public Service if he will arrange that when rates of remuneration in the public service are adjusted, the corresponding adjustments in the rates of related pensions payable to retired public servants will be made immediately.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Public Service Pensions.
70.
As I indicated in reply to a parliamentary question on 31st October, 1974, I do not propose to alter the arrangements announced in this year's budget whereby public service pensions are revised on 1st July each year by reference to rates of pay in force on that date. As the Deputy is aware, this represented a significant improvement on the system hitherto applied in that the effective date for payment of pension increases was advanced from 1st October to 1st July.
May I put it to the Minister that the circumstances in which he made the decision to which he has referred have changed and that now, because of the substantially greater inflation and also because of the fact that the present national agreement is a phased agreement, the arrangement to which he has referred is now inappropriate and, that being so, it is an injustice to retired pensioners to tie them to one change in pension a year?
I would not accept what the Deputy has argued. I would point out that this movement which I arranged by transferring the date from 1st October to 1st July has conferred on pensioners quite a substantial amount of money so far. They are now in a more privileged position by far than any other pensioners in our community by having this annual automatic right of adjustment of their pensions on 1st July every year which means that the pensions will be based upon all the increases that might have been enjoyed by serving civil servants during the preceding year.
It is not parity as I had provided for because of the change in the method of raising civil servants' salaries.