THE MINISTER of State with responsibility for Older People has refused to guarantee the old-age pension will not be cut in December’s budget.
At a question and answer session at Age Action Ireland’s agm in Croke Park yesterday, Áine Brady said no decisions had been taken on the pension and nobody could be “publicly safeguarded prior to a budget”.
Minister for Social Protection Eamon Ó Cuív said last month a cut to the old-age pension could not be ruled out. There was applause when one delegate at yesterday’s agm 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 the Minister said the most vulnerable would be protected in the budget, regardless of age.
After the debate Michael Kairns from Co Donegal said that 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 Lyang from Dublin said she was most concerned about single people being “completely discriminated” against on the issue of medical cards.
She had 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 pushed her over the medical card limit. “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,” she said.
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”.
