Government set for big defeat over women’s pension anomaly
The government is facing a big defeat in the Dáil tomorrow night over its failure to address a women’s pension anomaly in Budget 2018.
The row centres on changes made by Joan Burton in 2012 which saw women who took time out of employment to raise families before 1994 receive smaller pension payments.
Now Fianna Fáil, who supported last week's budget, have tabled a motion that is likely to be supported by other opposition parties.
The Taoiseach says he agrees there is a problem, but the money isn't there to fix it in one budget.
“As a government we absolutely accept that there is a need to review this whole area, to examine anomalies and come up with changes, but those changes should not be done in isolation,” said Leo Varadkar.
“If we’re going to do pension reform, we should do it comprehensively.
“But there’s one area where I actually disagree with a number of the NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and people campaigning in this space. What some of them have said is they want to move away from the contributory principle altogether, and I disagree with that.”
