Farmers welcome pensions U-turn
Minister for Social Protection Eamon O Cuív has been forced into the U-turn after tough lobbying from the farming community, senior citizens and opposition TDs.
More than 250 mainly elderly farm women had been facing ruin by the pension withdrawal, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) had claimed.
The department yesterday admitted reinstating entitlements to 84 spouses would only cost €250,000.
IFA president John Bryan welcomed Mr O Cuív’s decision to restore the entitlements, which had been withdrawn by his predecessor, Mary Hanafin.
“This swift decision by Eamon O Cuív is the mark of a caring minister who was not prepared to stand over the injustice that had been done to these women whose pensions were taken away in January.”
The spouses – many in their 70s and 80s – had been encouraged in 2008 under a state-funded business partnership scheme with their husbands to claim retrospective state pension payments.
Many paid thousands of euro for gaps in their PRSI contributions and were awarded large sums, some for tens of thousands of euro, in back payments.
However, many spouses were told in January the department wanted the money back, as it had emerged the wives were in fact not eligible because they had not paid at least one year’s PRSI before the age of 66 under the scheme.
Ma Hanafin described the debacle a “department error”.
At one stage, dozens of elderly farmers wives took to the streets, protesting at the gates of Leinster House over their pension withdrawals.
Mr O Cuív said yesterday that after a review by his department and advice from the Attorney General, the move to withdraw or reduce pensions for spouses concerned had been rescinded.
All pension arrears due would be paid and overpayments would no longer be sought, he said.
Pension scheme applications received or refused before December 31, 2009, would be dealt with under the legislation at that time, said the department, and this would be completed within the next four weeks.
Applications received from January 1, 2010, would be processed under current legislation, it added.
The IFA said yesterday’s U-turn would reinstate entitlements for up to 150 spouses, but a remaining 120 would have to be re-assessed under the new legislation.
