Sir, – Is Stephen Collins and the Publicpolicy.ie think tank engaging in a bit of "granny bashing"? ("Older couples pay nearly €5,000 less tax on average income", November 1st)
While it is hard to know what motivated the spending of money on the research, it is obvious that the benefit referred to does not accrue to all pensioners, given that we know that very few actually have an income of €36,000 a year.
Getting on for 45 per cent of all pensioners will have no other income apart from the State pension of €233 a week.
Indeed the majority of those will actually have much less to live on given the new higher PSRI contributions needed to qualify for a full State pension introduced by Joan Burton in 2012.
Maybe Mr Collins and Publicpolicy.ie might do a better service if they studied the number of people who are condemned to live out their last years in poverty as a result of these changes rather than engaging in the “new politics” of setting various groupings at each other’s throats in what seems an ongoing campaign to distract attention away from the ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor in our society.
– Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN
Rathedmond,
Sligo.