Machiavellian stroke against state pensioners

IN his letter (January 19), Tom Kindlon asserts that all people who rely on the state for their income, except pensioners, suffered deductions in the December budget.

Ostensibly this would appear to be the case. However, there is method in the Government’s actions as its real desire is to break pension parity, the link between pay rises and pension, and introduce the consumer price index as the basis for pension increases. It was very clever to seem to be charitable in not passing on a cut, but the real motive will be evident when an increase is not passed on to pensioners. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan mentioned the need to scrutinise pension parity in his budget speech, but this subtle detail seems to have been lost on many people.

While I understand the plight of workers whose salaries were cut by the budget looking on with envy at those on decent pensions, it is worth noting that many public sector retirees experienced a slow climb up a long incremental scale before reaching the top of it. They too struggled financially and also paid inordinate taxes in the 1980s when take-home pay was decimated. Their reward was supposed to be a half decent pension. This is now seriously threatened. It is bad enough that the Government pitted private sector against public sector workers without further division between young and old. Things are not always as they seem, especially with a Machiavellian government.