The Government had reneged on an election commitment over pensions for retired civil servants, the former minister for finance, Mr Ruairi Quinn, claimed.

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said however that the Government intended to honour its commitment to public service pensioners and "the manner in which this commitment will be implemented is being considered in the course of the current estimates-budgetary process".

Mr Quinn said that Fianna Fail would not be in Government were it not for retired civil servants. Their election preferences, he said, went in favour of the party, "which had specifically misled the public service pensioners of this country". The 77,150 retired civil servants were promised that "they would get 50 per cent, for ever and a day, of the going rate of the job from which they retired".

They were promised, "with a sense of urgency, that that deal would be cemented not withstanding the complexities". After 117 days in the job, however, the Minister had not even asked for a meeting with the ICTU.

The Minister said he intended to publish in the near future the interim report of the Commission on Public Service pensions. He told the Dail that the cost of public service pensions was likely to increase "from £540 million in 1995 to £2.2 billion in 2025 and to £2.6 billion in 2045".

An estimated fund of "£15 billion would be needed to meet the public service pension liabilities accrued to date, with an annual contribution of around £700 million to pay for future service".