Embarrassing pensions motion defeat for Government

The Government has suffered an embarrassing defeat in a vote on a Sinn Féin motion to end the practice where a 65-year-old goes on jobseeker’s benefit for a year before receiving their pension.

The Sinn Féin Private Member’s Motion also called for pension equality for women who, the party said, had been disproportionately affected by 2012 pension reforms. These reforms increased the age to qualify for the State pension from 65 to 66 currently and eventually to 68.

The Government lost the vote by 48 votes to 93, with four abstentions. Fianna Fáil voted with Sinn Féin, the AAA-PBP group, the Green Party, Social Democrats and most Independents.

Independent Alliance TDs voted with Fine Gael, as did Independent TD Michael Lowry. The Labour Party abstained.

However, the substantive Sinn Féin motion to reinstate 65 as the qualifying age for the State pension was not accepted. A subsequent Fianna Fáil amendment by the party’s social protection spokesman Willie O’Dea was accepted by 51 votes to 37, with 46 abstentions.

That amendment called for legislation to make it illegal for employment contracts to stipulate that retirement at the age of 65 was compulsory in recognition that people were living longer and that they should be given the option of continuing to work. It also called for equality of treatment for men and women in terms of pension.

Second time

Coalition Fine Gael and Independent TDs abstained on the Fianna Fáil vote.

It is the second time since the Government was formed that it has lost a vote following its defeat in June on a Labour Party motion on workers’ rights.

While the defeat of the Government motion has no practical implications in terms of the Coalition remaining in power, it is a setback for the confidence and supply arrangement Fine Gael has with Fianna Fáil.

The motion stated that without raising the State pension age, pensions would become unaffordable and unsustainable in the future, and it would be impossible to maintain their value.

Sinn Féin’s John Brady, who introduced the motion during a debate on Wednesday night, said it was an “absolute joke and farce” that when people reached 65 they were not allowed to apply for their pension but had to go on jobseeker’s benefit. His party’s motion was fundamentally about “fairness and equality”.

Public consultation

Mr Brady claimed the increase “came about with no political debate, public consultation or cost-benefit analysis of the measure”.

However, Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar, whose amendment was defeated, said the Sinn Féin proposal would cost €150 million a year and costs to the Social Insurance Fund would rise again in 2018 and every year after that.

He said Sinn Féin had put forward no proposals in its motion to fund any of its plans. The Government had worked hard to bring the Social Insurance Fund from deficit to surplus, and this year for the first time since 2008 the fund would have a surplus.