Pension time bomb could detonate Leo and Micheál’s Dáil ambitions

FINE Gael wanted to make the Dáil race all about Brexit but, as is so often the case in an election, it’s the money in voters’ pockets – or rather the lack of it – that has emerged as the big issue.

While health and housing have been top of the agenda in the campaign to date, pensions could be the issue that ultimately helps decide who is sitting in the Taoiseach’s office in a few weeks – or months – time.

Though it has been coming down the tracks for years as the legislation was passed by the Dáil in 2011, many workers are only now becoming aware that the pension age will soon increase to 67 and eventually to 68.

Make no mistake, Ireland, with its aging and longer living population, is facing into a pensions crisis but voters young and old are aghast at the notion of having to work years longer than they would otherwise have imagined.

That private sector workers may be forced to retire and then sign on the dole for less than they would receive under the State Pension has only inflamed feelings even further.

The introduction of vaguely defined ‘transitional payments’ to prevent those under 67 being forced into dole queues have been suggested by Fine Gael but.

However, it seems, these payments would only be available to 66-year-olds, leaving 65-year-old private sector retirees badly in the lurch.

It’s not just an issue for older voters either. The pension issue is also proving a hot button issue with younger voters many of whom, not unreasonably, fear that the pension age will have raised still further by the time their careers come to an end.

For a young worker struggling to pay the rent on a basic wage the notion that even in retirement they mightn’t be comfortable is an understandable concern.

For Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil the issue has proven to a plague on both their houses.

With one of them almost certain to be in Government in the near future, neither party is in a position to perform a u-turn as to do so could cost the State billions and put the exchequer under extreme pressure in the coming decades.

The fact that the 2011 legislation – though passed by Fine Gael and Labour – was based on a Fianna Fáil Government’s research also leaves Micheál Martin in an invidious position.

Surprisingly, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil seem to have been caught on the hop by an issue they should have seen coming a mile off.

Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael have gone to great pains to remind voters of Fianna Fáil’s disastrous role in the economic crash. They should perhaps have paid greater attention to some of the key events that unfolded as Ireland’s economy crashed and burned.

Turn your mind back to October 2008 when thousands of outraged pensioners marched on the Dáil to protest against Fianna Fáil’s plan to increase the qualifying age for medical cards.

In the face of the grey revolution, Brian Cowen’s Government caved under the pressure and abandoned the plan. The political lesson was simple. Never, ever, provoke the grey vote.