State cut payments to retired aviation workers to help aid pension fund deficit, court hears

The State used a law to cut payments to retired aviation workers to help address a €770m pension fund deficit and avoid industrial unrest among existing workers before the sell-off of Aer Lingus in 2014/15, the High Court has heard.

The circumstances of those still at work - active and deferred members of the Irish Airlines Superannuation Scheme (IASS) - "was improved by disimproving the lot of existing pensioners" under the 2014 restructuring of the defined benefit scheme, Paul Gardiner SC said.