Vol. 505 No. 6
130 Mr. P. Carey asked the Minister for Finance if the statement (details supplied) by the National Association of Retired Public Employees that it is now the Government's policy to reduce public service pensions is accurate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14375/99]
It most certainly is not Government policy to reduce public service pensions.
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 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. It also indicated that the decision to apply parity with a floor of 3 per cent in respect of the PCW restructuring deals was a once-off measure and that the policy in relation to any future restructuring deals will be determined in the light of the recommendations in the final report of the commission on public service pensions. I look forward to receiving that report in the coming months.
Officials of my Department have met representatives of the national association of retired public service employees, formerly the public service pensions action group, on a number of occasions, most recently in March 1999. The issues being pursued by that association and other pensioner groups dispute aspects of settled pensions parity policy. For example, they want personal long service increments paid to certain serving staff on a personal basis under their PCW restructuring pay deals to be passed on to retired personnel. My Department has made it clear from the beginning that it is a core element of pensions parity policy that such payments are not passed on to pensioners because they are not a permanent feature of the pay scale.
