I am satisfied that the measures taken by my Department have restored pensions parity for the pensioners in question.
The position is that in June 1997 in An Action Programme for the Millennium, the Government undertook to protect public service pensions. In November 1997 the Government announced that the benefit of the restructuring pay deals under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work would apply on the basis of parity to public servants who had retired before the commencement dates; however, in order to protect those retired public servants who would have received less than 3 per cent had parity been applied in the normal way, the Government decided, as a once-off measure, that pensioners should be guaranteed a minimum increase of 3 per cent, or 2 per cent in the case of any pensioners who have already received an advance payment of 1 per cent. The Government also announced that, because those restructuring pay deals posed major difficulties in applying parity, they were referring the matter to the Commission on Public Service Pensions.