The Executive Officers of the Alliance of Retired Public Servants (ARPS) have held a number of meetings with senior officials of key Government Departments. Regional Meetings are being organised by the Executive Committee to update retired Public Service Pensioners countrywide. At a Regional meeting held in Limerick on 20th October 2014, the Alliance Chairman, Mr Brian Burke, stated that the main objectives of the Alliance were the restoration of pensions levels, the restoration of parity with salary increases and full negotiating rights for ARPS. There exists a fundamental discrimination between how the USC is applied to public service pensions and to private sector pensions and only marginal change to this was reflected in the recent budget.
While the Haddington Road Agreement contains specific provision for the restoration of salaries for serving public servants, no such formal commitment exists for the restoration of pensions.
Retired public service pensioners have no official negotiation rights and this situation needs to be addressed. The Industrial Relations Acts only deal with “Workers” and do not include or make provision for Public Service Pensioners. The Alliance is at present discussing these and other anomalies with Mr. Brendan Howlin, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, and his staff.
The Alliance is writing to all Party Leaders to urge early restoration of pensions and progress with the USC. It will also write to all Oireachtas and EU Parliament members. Individuals will be encouraged to contact their local TDs.
Further Regional Meetings will be held in the coming months and an information document, outlining the key issues, will be prepared and distributed. ARCOIreland members will be informed of the dates and locations of future meetings and are encouraged to attend these. The next meeting is being provisionally planned for the Wexford/Kilkenny area.
