Madam, – I am 70 and receive a State contributory pension of €225.80 per week (a little less than the full rate of €230.30 due to working in the UK for a few years) and a dependent spouse allowance of €206.30 per week, giving a total of €432.10 per week. I also have a very small private pension. Had I stayed in the UK and been entitled to a full contributory pension, I would receive £96.65 (€120) and a dependent allowance of £58.50 (€72), a grand total of €192 per week. In other words, my pension in the UK would be 44 per cent of what I get in Ireland! At 70, under current regulations, I qualify for a medical card, free travel and the household benefits package of free television licence, fuel allowance and telephone line rental.
We, as a nation, are a generous people when it comes to contributing to emergency appeals and worthy causes. As parents and grandparents, let us help our children and grandchildren in a communal way that can and will make a difference to their futures. So we would, therefore, be willing, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, to contribute 10 per cent of our pension and dependent pension allowance towards the repayment of this country’s debt.
This could be a voluntary scheme operating for a period of five years, ie the time schedule already identified by the Government as the period to get our finances in order.
We may think we know who to blame for our current problems, but we need to focus on solutions to our problems rather than debate the causes. – Yours, etc,