Madam, – Padraig Heeran (May 17th) is not stating the facts when he says, “We paid for our pensions throughout our working careers”. Yes, he paid a pension contribution. But that contribution bears no relationship to the pension he is receiving, which is guaranteed and funded from general taxation. It’s worth noting also that if paid into a fund, those contributions would very probably be funding a much smaller pension.
Public servants seem to have difficulty grasping these basic points. If I aspire to a pension of say €20,000 then on the current rates it’s up to me to somehow amass a fund of around half a million euro. – Yours, etc,