John Downes
The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) is to lobby all TDs and senators to seek a change in proposals which it says will seriously affect the pensions of primary teachers.
According to the INTO, there is enormous disquiet among its members at plans contained in this year's Budget to increase the minimum pension age for new entrants to the public service to the age of 65.
This will mean that in future the earliest a primary teacher will be able to retire with full pension will be at the age of 65.
The aim of the lobbying campaign, which will involve the INTO meeting with all 166 TDs and 60 Senators, will be to make clear the concerns of primary teachers at what they see as a major worsening of their conditions.
A specially-convened meeting of the INTO executive and local members took place last Saturday to coordinate the campaign.
There are also plans to lobby the Minister for Finance, Mr MrCreevy, for a change in the proposals. This will be achieved through the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, on whose executive two members of the INTO currently sit.
At present, the contributory pensions scheme for teachers amounts to 6.5 per cent of their salary. They must retire at 65, but may retire on full pension after 40 years service. Full pension means that teachers retire on half of their finishing salary.
However, there is also a provision for teachers to retire with a reduced pension once they have reached the age of 55, and have completed 35 years service.
This will be discontinued for new entrants should the Minister for Finance's proposals go ahead, according to the INTO.
While a limited type of early retirement has been proposed as part of a general public service scheme, the organisation says the fact that this will be actuarially assessed means that a teacher who will have paid 35 years of pension contributions will in fact receive a pension that only reflects 28 years of service.
The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), which represents teachers in second and third-level schools and colleges here, has also expressed its opposition to the proposed changes.
Last month, it called on Mr McCreevy to reverse his decision to change the pension entitlement age, a decision which it said ignores the reservations of the trade union representatives who served on the pensions commission.
However, a TUI spokesman said it does not currently have plans to campaign on the issue.
Responding to a Dáil question in December, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, said the minimum pension age of 65 and the removal of the compulsory retirement age of 65 would only apply to new entrants to the public service from April 1st of this year. The changes, he said, "largely represent" the implementation of the recommendations of the pensions commission.