“Everything’s getting more expensive,” said Seán Hayes, a former station master in Drogheda, as he protested with fellow pensioners outside Heuston on Wednesday while a CIÉ board meeting was going on inside the station. “Every time you go to the shops, the bill is bigger but we are still on the same.”
Former employees of the transport group’s constituent companies came from across the country to participate in the protest. It was the latest attempt by the group, representing 2,200 retired members of the CIÉ 1951 Superannuation Scheme, to highlight that their income had not increased since 2008.
Mr Hayes, who is 84 and lives with his wife, travelled to Dublin for the day to help publicise the cause. He said the 16-year freeze had made things much harder for the couple, particularly recently as they sought to deal with substantially higher fuel and grocery prices.
Having retired on a supervisory grade salary, Mr Hayes was not actually among the worst off. Bernie Tierney, of the pensioners’ group behind the protest, said many of its members were not getting even the State non-contributory rate of €266.
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They are not entitled to State pensions or some related benefits because of the class of pay related social insurance (PRSI) contributions they made – something the group said was entirely outside of their control.
Company pensions were traditionally linked to staff pay, she said, but that had increased by 30 per cent since 2016 while retired workers had received nothing.
“We have members, particularly women who wouldn’t have reached the higher grades because they didn’t back then, who are having to watch what they eat, who can’t go places. One struggled to pay the cost of getting to and from her doctor. They haven’t money for socialising, so it isolates people,” she said.
Fellow committee member Noreen Coughlan said there was a feeling that “when we were working we were useful but now we are simply forgotten about”.
Benefits have been frozen at 2008 levels because the scheme was substantially in the red, failing to meet the minimum funding standard set out in legislation.
It is now back in surplus, but only just. While one set of consultants, commissioned by the scheme’s committee, have said increases over 2.6 per cent annually would be sustainable over the next few years, others, commissioned by the company, have said that would not be “prudent”.
The company argues it is the last surviving public sector scheme of its type but is, as such, unaffordable. It currently contributes 27 per cent of salary.
Under the terms of a deal to address the funding issue by raising the minimum retirement age from 60 to 63 and cutting future benefits, the company would be required to pay €320 million into the fund over the next 10 years. That deal, recommended by the Labour Court and approved in a ballot of current staff, has not yet been implemented.
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