Pension scheme 15 times over budget

A GOVERNMENT scheme to increase the number of people entitled to old-age pensions ended up costing 15 times more than estimated, it emerged yesterday.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Michael Noonan said yesterday that the scheme - to make people who paid insurance ‘stamps’ before 1953 eligible for contributory pensions - will cost a total of €135 million in 2005. When introduced in 2000, the estimated annual expenditure was in the order of €8.9m.

The gross underestimation of the cost of the scheme has been examined by the PAC since first revealed in 2002 by Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell.