Minister of State with responsibility for Older People Áine Brady refused to guarantee the old-age pension would not be cut in December’s budget.
Speaking during a lively question and answer session at Age Action Ireland’s AGM in Croke Park today the Minister said no decisions had been taken on the pension and nobody can be “publicly safeguarded prior to a budget”.
Delegates at the conference were keen to raise the issue after last month Minister for Social Protection Eamon Ó Cuív said a cut to the old-age pension in December’s budget could not be ruled out.
There was applause when one delegate called the Government a “bloody disgrace” saying they had no right to reduce the pension after people had spent years contributing to it.
He pointed out that €22 billion had been given to Anglo Irish Bank and he threatened to “take to the streets” should a proposed property tax be introduced.
Ms Brady said Mr Ó Cuív had been “forced” into saying what he said about pensions but she also pointed out that he said the most vulnerable will be protected in the budget regardless of age.
Ms Brady promised delegates she would give “every bit of my time energy and effort” to protect pensions.
In response to questions about the annual medical card review, the Minister agreed with delegates saying an assessment every year for medical card was an “outrageous” waste of time.
“I don’t see what the necessity for having a review, once you get it your circumstances are unlikely to change,” she added.
Speaking after the debate, Michael Kairns from Co Donegal said he was most concerned about pensions.
He said while the Government appeared to have rolled back on means testing the old age contributory pension there were “many ways of killing a cat other than by choking it”.
“This thing they announced in the last budget – a universal contribution by everybody - which will replace income levies, health levies and PRSI. At the moment you don’t pay a PRSI on pensions or don’t pay health levies if over 70 years of age - does it mean in the next budget does everybody have to make this universal contribution?
“Is it going to be paid at a lower rate but paid by everybody, which will mean a reduction in pensions in another form?”
He said while Ms Brady was a “very nice lady who at least came and took questions from the floor” she was non-committal on everything.
Maeve Layng from Dublin said she was concerned about single people being “completely discriminated” against on the issue of medical cards. She said she sold her house and moved into an apartment because she needed the savings to move into a nursing home later in life. However, her savings now push her over the medical card limit.
“If people are married and one of them has a medical card then the other gets a medical card…I know somebody with maybe three times income I have and they have a medical card," she said. "Had I stayed where I was I had [a property that] was worth three times where I am now and still have a medical card.”
Ms Layng said old age pensions were already cut when the Christmas bonus was removed last year. “We’ve paid for those all of our lives, she added.
Earlier, Age Action Ireland’s chief executive Robin Webster said the last 12 months had been a period of gloom and doom for the charity. He said the growing pace of cuts to services and support schemes has caused “great hardship for those who currently depend on them and great anxiety among many others who are fearful about their own future".
