Fianna Fáil vows to tackle pensions inequalities

Fianna Fáil is to raise the Government’s failure to address pensions inequalities which are denying tens of thousands of women full payments. 

The “gross unfairness” of the anomaly in calculations of the contributory old age pension is to be raised at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in Dublin’s RDS today.

It comes after Finance Minister, Paschal Donohoe, came under criticism this week for not addressing the pension inequalities as part of Budget 2018.

Women who took time out of work to look after children or care for sick or elderly relatives feel cheated that their contributory pensions have been cut. Workers, mainly women, who left work to care for young or sick in the home, are being penalised as their contributions are averaged out from the day they first began working and do not take account of a period of leave.

The anomalies were exacerbated after then Social Protection Minister Joan Burton introduced changes in 2012 which have made it even more difficult to qualify for contributory pensions.

The motion around these anomalies, which Fianna Fáil say negatively impact on women, has been put forward by the Glasnevin North cumann.

Fianna Fáil TD Dara O’Brien said: “It has something that we have been consistently raising, we initially opposed those measures that were brought in by the last Fine Gael-Labour Government way back in 2012.”

Speaking ahead of the Ard Fheis which began last night, he described the 2012 changes as a “backward step” that effectively means that the thresholds for women to receive contributory pensions have doubled.

“Many who worked from home for periods of their lives are now being penalised,” Mr O’Brien told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

However, yesterday Sinn Féin deputy leader, Mary Lou McDonald, claimed Fianna Fáil is now exploiting those on lower pensions after previously ignoring them.

“Last December, Sinn Féin put forward a motion to try to address these issues. Sinn Féin attempted to address the pension inequality against women and to reverse the changes made in 2012. Fianna Fáil chose not to support that initiative.

“Fianna Fáil did nothing for them in the Budget negotiations. They did nothing for them in the last Budget. They excluded them from their election manifesto. They did not even make reference to them until it was a chance to feign concern in the Dáil.”