Sir, – As you say in your editorial (A temporary measure?) of September 30th, “on no major issue has the Government behaved quite so dishonourably as on the pensions issue”. This is surely correct.
The Government prides itself on the “tough” but necessary decisions it is making for the good of the country – and no doubt the levy, and how tough it was not to keep the promise to terminate it, are part of that story.
Tackling the public service unions next year on their demands for more pay will be a stroll after this.
Since most employers have decided to pass on the full cost of the levy (as prompted by the 2011 Government legislation), the upshot of each extension of the levy is a further cut in pension – for life. What then, should the levy be made permanent? Pensioners and pension scheme members, be very afraid.
The €2.3 billion bite taken from pension funds, far from being a source of Government embarrassment, or reason for ceasing such plunder, is now becoming the very reason for continuing with it.
The reputation of the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, riding high at the moment, might yet be his role in wrecking the private pensions system. Is there no way to stop him?
Has any thought been given to the legality, or constitutionality, of what is going on here? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FEENEY,
Churchtown, Dublin 14.
Sir, –Several contributors to your newspaper have remarked on the apparent lack of outrage at the pension levy. Might I suggest the following reasons: private pension holders were already punch-drunk from the far larger “hit” they suffered at the hands of a pensions industry that awards itself some of the fattest fees for some of the worst investment performance on the planet.
Second, I suspect the victims of this heist are from a demographic that prefers its vengeance, well chilled, at election time.
May heaven help any government that attempts to force us into the high-cost, risky, and opaque products that are the stock in trade of this industry under the guise of a compulsory national pension scheme.
If this Government wishes to do something for private pensioners in recompense for this unjust levy, might I suggest the following two reforms in the upcoming budget (in addition to announcing the abolition of the levy): follow the example of the British chancellor and free Irish pension-holders completely from the shackles of increasingly bad-value annuities; and give each taxpayer the option of nominating a single deposit account in a bank or credit union where deposits would enjoy the tax treatment enjoyed by pension investments – on condition the capital could not be accessed until retirement without first returning the avoided tax. – Yours, etc,
PETER MURRAY,
Carrigaline,
Co Cork.