Moves to shore up pensions dismissed as inadequate

MOVES to shore up recession-ravaged pension schemes were dismissed as inadequate last night as unions warned the elderly faced a life of “penury”.

ICTU general secretary David Begg insisted that unless the Government offered a more radical rescue plan to lift packages, which had plunged €30 billion into the red during the stock market slump, it could scupper a new social partnership deal.

Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin said the State could not afford to go as far as unions wanted, but was trying to help the 90% of defined benefit schemes in the private sector thought to be in the red.