A 61-YEAR-OLD man, a former employee of the old Department of Posts and Telegraphs, claims he has been refused a pension which he paid into for 16 years because of his part in an IRA robbery of a post office during the height of the Troubles.
Matt Leen, who had worked as a post office clerk, served seven years in Portlaoise prison for his part in the robbery of Tralee Post Office in 1978.
In February 2007, when he reached the age of 60, Mr Leen, who lives in Tralee, applied for the pension scheme into which he had paid regularly for 16 years while employed by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs as a clerk in various post offices throughout the country. He was told by An Post his pension came to €20,000, plus €170 a week, but the amount taken in the robbery plus compound interest which amounted to over €200,000 would have to be paid back first.
"They said the reason for this was 'loss to the exchequer'. But where would you start with 'loss to the exchequer'? The gas off Mayo, the torture and victimisation of the McBrearty family in Donegal, the mutilation of the women in Drogheda, all the tribunals? Did any of these lose their pensions?" Mr Leen asked.
He said he made no apology for standing against the "occupation of my own country" and the "sectarian apartheid that was applied to my fellow citizens in Antrim, Armagh, Down, Derry, Fermanagh and Tyrone".
Pensions ombudsman Paul Kenny, who has been dealing with the issue, said it was the first such complaint he had received about An Post.
Mr Kenny said "it appears that a view had been taken by An Post that although Mr Leen had paid his debt to society, he had not paid his debt to An Post".
He said he was waiting for the views of the trustees of the An Post superannuation scheme on the matter.
Some superannuation schemes had a provision that where money was owed to an employer, pension could not be paid until the money was repaid, Mr Kenny told Mr Leen.
However, he said Mr Leen's contributory State pension would not be affected as this was not provided by An Post but by the social welfare system.
Yesterday a spokesman for An Post said the company had now written to Mr Kenny to confirm Mr Leen worked with the post office, but as far as An Post was concerned the matter was now "back with the department".
The spokesman confirmed that at some stage in the past Mr Leen may have been told by An Post he was not entitled to avail of the An Post scheme, but since he was never an employee of An Post (who took over the post office network in 1984), the issue was a matter for the Department of Communications, the successor to the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.