‘Pay them what you bloody well owe them,’ says pensions crusader

THE pensioner who first highlighted the pensions anomaly on live radio told the Government to cough up for back pay as well.

Eamonn Tynan (69), from Longford, last night demanded that pensioners who have been affected since 2012 should have what they are owed since then backdated to them.

“Absolutely back pay,” he said, adding: “Pay them what you bloody well owe them.”

He first raised the issue in October when speaking to RTÉ’s ‘Today with Sean O’Rourke’ in the wake of the Budget announcement.

Mr Tynan had said his wife was getting a reduced pension, which sparked Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to call the overall situation “bonkers”.

“If I’ve done anything worthwhile in my life, I think at least I’ve been able to help people get their dues,” he said.

Battle

Meanwhile, fellow pensioner Zephra Johnson (66), from Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, said that while there was a frustration in having to wait until next year for the payments to come through, she felt that much of the battle had been won.

Ms Johnson herself became eligible for a pension in May last year.

However, because she had stopped working in the 1970s in order to raise her children, she realised she would not be receiving the full pension payment upon retirement.

The pensioner explained that with only a finite amount of money available to the Government, she could understand that they have not committed to back pay.

“They should pay us from March this year and while it would frustrate me slightly, I would be satisfied that we have won the longer battle,” Ms Johnson said.

“I wouldn’t be going back too far, so I wouldn’t be worried about that too much,” Ms Johnson said when asked about the issue of back pay.

“It was just the shock that I got last year when I found out that I wasn’t entitled to it.”