asked the Minister for Finance whether he will consider amending the Pensions Increase Act, 1964 so as to permit other Minister to grant increases not covered by regulations to retired employees of drainage boards and local authorities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pensions Increases.
44.
The grant of pension increases to public service pensioners generally, and the cost involved, are matters for decision in connection with the preparation of the Budget. Adoption of a uniform method for calculating increases is fair as among the pensioners and it also enables the appropriate budgetary charge to be determined. Accordingly I am not prepared to allow any departure from a uniform standard for these increases.
Is the Minister aware that several drainage board and local authority pensioners are living on a very meagre pension which has not been increased for quite some time and the Departments directly involved maintain that they are debarred from taking any action until the Minister for Finance does? In view of that would the Minister not consider that some move should be made to help these people now?
In the cases contemplated by the Deputy there are some such and there are some such among civil servants, not very many, but where they occur they occur because the people concerned had received a higher rate of pension increase than most other pensioners and as a consequence were not able to benefit from the recent increase which was bringing pensioners up to a level as at a certain year. However, such people have, as I said, gained proportionately more in the past than other pensioners and to introduce a differing method of calculating these pensions would be unfair to pensioners in general and would make it very difficult to cost the pensions concerned when preparing the Budget.