Sir, – Donal Fitzpatrick (September 20th) senses he is an outsider in his country.
I know how he feels. I pay into a tax deferred pension fund and rely on it to avoid being dependent on my children or the State in old age. Recently, 0.6 per cent of my fund was removed allegedly for a “jobs” initiative and some believe private pension funds should be further raided for more public spending.
The current 10-year performance in Irish pension funds shows a growth of 1.1 per cent annually ( www.finfacts.ie). The annual tax of 0.6 per cent on pension funds therefore represents half of any funds potential growth. This is a disaster in investment terms, severely undermining my retirement hopes. It is now more likely that I will be dependent on my children or the State. The same applies to any person planning for retirement not in the Government's defined benefit scheme for its employees.
At the same time, we must guarantee with our taxes the hugely generous defined benefit scheme for current politicians and public servants. These insiders have a defined benefit scheme to beat all, with links to salary increases, “accelerated” provisions, guaranteed payments etc.
Like Mr Fitzpatrick then I am an outsider in a State with a divided pension policy: one set of very generous and forgiving rules for the insiders and something very different for the rest of us. – Yours, etc,