Sit-in protest at reversal of decision to give pensions to farm spouses

A GROUP of 12 women staged a sit-in at the Department of Social and Family Affairs last night in protest at the reversal of a Government decision to award pensions to farm spouses.

A spokesman for the group, which occupied the lobby of the building in Store Street, said the women intended to continue their protest until Minister Mary Hanafin agreed to meet them.

The protest was in response to the Government’s announcement earlier this year that it is to reverse a 2008 decision to award pension provision to spouses of farmers.

In 2008, the Government agreed to award contributory pensions to farmers’ spouses if they made sufficient retrospective PRSI payments. Hundreds of spouses – mainly women – availed of the service and received a contributory pension.

In January this year recipients of the pension received letters stating that their pension entitlements were being disallowed, as they did not in fact qualify for the scheme. Pension payments immediately ceased, and recipients were instructed by the Government to pay back any money they had already received.

Last month Ms Hanafin told an Oireachtas committee that the awarding of the pension to the spouses arose from an administrative error which she described as an “awful mistake”.

Yesterday afternoon some 300 members of the Irish Farmers’ Association, mostly wives of retired farmers, staged a protest outside the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

Maureen Horan travelled from Mallyhooley near Fermoy in Co Cork to take part in the protest. She said the decision to reverse the pension entitlements was a disgrace.

“I was completely shocked when I received the letter in January and my pension payments stopped. Not only are they demanding that we return the money we have received, they are keeping the PRSI that we paid retrospectively.”

Agnes Foley from Charleville in Co Cork said the decision was a form of “elder abuse”. “People working in the banks don’t have to pay back a penny, and yet we have to pay back everything we received, which we were given in good faith.”

IFA president John Bryan was sharply critical yesterday of what he described as a “U-turn” by Ms Hanafin.

“The disgraceful decision to deprive farm women of a pension is a heartless move against a hidden workforce who had finally gained some recognition for decades of work on a farm.” He said the Minister had “persistently refused” to meet the IFA since the letters were issued to recipients.

Margaret Healy, chairwoman of the IFA’s farm family committee, said she was concerned for the welfare of the women pensioners whose pensions have been taken “without warning”.

“Some of these women are without weekly pensions since early January and this leaves them in a very vulnerable situation. Our elderly people are entitled to a more caring attitude form the Minister and her department. The Minister must honour her agreement and reinstate the pensions of these elderly women.”