The High Court has reserved judgment on a challenge by employees of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority to the refusal to exempt them from the public service pension levy.
Maurice Collins, for the State, argued yesterday the pension scheme for the bank employees was no different to that for employees in the Civil Service, with both offering guaranteed benefits on retirement.
While the Central Bank may be autonomous and its funding may differ slightly from other public service bodies, it was a State-sanctioned body recognised by statute, he said.
Just as civil servants were guaranteed certain conditions under their pension on retirement, so were the bank workers.
He was opposing an application by the workers to quash the Minister's refusal to exempt them from the levy, applied under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act.
The trade union Unite, and Paul Gallagher, chairman of its staff committee in the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland, have claim their pension scheme is like a private fund and the refusal to exempt them amounts to double or special taxation, which is unconstitutional.