Victory for grey power, but bonkers anomaly goes on

SOCIAL Protection Minister Regina Doherty must be ‘bonkers’ if she thinks she’s going to get any plaudits for her sticking plaster solution to the pensions anomaly. The situation that has developed, where tens of thousands of pensioners – mostly women who were forced out of the workforce – are losing out about €35 a week in their pension because of the way their entitlement is being calculated, has been labelled as ‘bonkers’.

The pathetic spin coming from certain anonymous sources close to the minister before Christmas in a national newspaper was that she was going to fix it all in a jiffy. Of course, it wasn’t that simple.

The minister went through the Budget 2018 process without going near the issue. The Government was forced to react after the pensioners successfully campaigned against the injustice.

The result is a rectification which will recognise all contributions over the course of a career. But not just yet.

The legislation will be effective from March 30 this year, but the payments won’t kick in until 2019.

There is no element of backdating.

The unfairness, introduced by a Fine Gael-led government in 2012, which is now accepted as being wrong, will not result in a reimbursement of lost payments.

The level of frustration will continue for those who lost out and aren’t getting any recompense.

However, this belated reform is a victory for grey power.