Sir, – Labour is campaigning hard on what is "one of the biggest issues to emerge during the election", we are told. (Miriam Lord, "Sinn Féin and Labour unveil manifestos – but is it art?", Analysis, January 29th).
Brendan Howlin and Joan Burton fronted the presentation pledging that the pension eligibility age will be fixed at 66 which surely must have left many scratching their heads in wonderment. Was this not the same Brendan Howlin who introduced the Public Service Pensions (single scheme) and Remuneration Bill 2011 which increased the pension eligibility age for public servants, bringing it into line with the State pension age which was set to increase to 67 in 2021 and 68 in 2028? Indeed reading Mr Howlin’s press release issued on the October 19th, 2011, entitled “Transforming Public Services”, he extolled the virtues of extending the eligibility age. As for Joan Burton, was she not also in the government that engineered these changes and indeed went even further when she took a hatchet to the State pension in 2012 which resulted in many workers suffering cuts of up to €50 a week in their pension – when they eventually became entitled to it?
The problem for Labour here is explaining the difference between what it promised on the hustings and what it actually did when it was in power.
Whatever about political parties being allowed some poetic licence, the gap between words and deeds here is unbridgeable.
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Such is the hypocrisy that Labour has even forfeited the right to hold others accountable for standards which it refuses to apply to itself. – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond, Sligo.
Sir, – The Labour Party is to look at the introduction of a four-day week without loss of pay.
Now we’re getting somewhere. I see this as an opening gambit and have little doubt that other parties can do better.
Ged Nash, Labour’s employment spokesman, is of the view that everyone would be a winner with a four-day week. It would make workers more productive and improve the bottom line for employers.
I have no doubt that Mr Nash is a keen student of economics. If employees are more productive and employers are more profitable with four days’ work as compared with five, one can hardly imagine the results if we had a three-day week.
Where will this end? And where is Myles when his country needs him? – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.