Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2005
268 Mr. Healy asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if An Post will ensure that its pensioners are treated properly and fairly and are awarded the pension increases which they have been denied by An Post management for the past two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3548/05]
View answerThe authority to implement pension increases was delegated to An Post, subject to certain conditions, as this activity was considered part of the day-to-day operations of the company. In practice this allowed the company to implement pension increases following pay increases to employees. However, decisions outside the scope of the original delegated authority still require the consent of both the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and the Minister for Finance.
Following a proposal from the board of An Post to amend the existing pension increase terms of An Post, in this instance, my Department and the Department of Finance undertook a review of the situation. While I fully empathise with An Post pensioners for the position they find themselves in due to the failure of An Post management and unions to reach agreement on implementation of the recovery strategy, the wider overall policy issues raised by the proposal from An Post also need to be considered.
By way of background and as the Deputy may be aware, the existing terms of the An Post superannuation scheme provide for ‘pay parity' that is, that pensions are increased in line with the pay of serving staff. This is in accordance with public service defined benefit pension increase policy generally, ‘pay parity' being an integral and well established practice which is widely applied in public service defined benefit pension schemes.
Unfortunately, following examination of the issue and taking into consideration the implications of providing a precedent which could impact adversely on the cost of pensions in the wider public sector and the existing practice of pay parity, increases to pensioners of An Post, linked to increases under Sustaining Progress, are not possible at this time.
While I understand the current frustration of An Post pensioners with the situation, agreement in partnership with An Post unions to the restructuring plan aimed at securing the future of the company and indeed providing sustainable long-term employment for An Post workers is the way forward.
With this in mind, I have urged both the unions and the management of An Post to fully engage with the industrial relations mechanisms of the State to agree a way forward for the future of the company and all stakeholders in this matter.
