Tara pensioners take case to gates of Leinster House

A large group of Tara miners brought their campaign to protect their pensions to the gates of Leinster House in Dublin last week. The miners were protesting against the way the company is implementing the 0.6 per cent levy on pensions recently introduced by the government. The levy will reduce the income of each pensioner on the scheme by 10 per cent, they claim. They handed Minister Shane McEntee a comprehensive file on their grievances, which he has undertaken to give to the Minister for Finance to review. Mr McEntee said: "I will be urging the Minister for Finance to look into this issue. Other companies in the north-east are not passing on the levy to their pensioners so why should Tara Mines be any different?" Deputy Peadar Tóibín and Sinn Féin leader, Gerry Adams, also met with the pensioners. According to Deputy Tóibín: "These pensioners, who on average have an annual income of €10,000, will lose a shocking €1,000. This is over a month's income for these individuals. This money is being taken out of the pockets of pensioners to be used on a supposed jobs initiative that has actually seen 20,000 extra people lose their jobs. At the same time, this government is putting tens of billions of taxpayer's money into the pockets of untouchable private bondholders. "The loss of €1,000 to a family on a wage of €10,000 is a devastating blow. Minister Noonan must meet with the former miners and reverse this financial attack on their living standards," he said. Senator Thomas Byrne welcomed the support from Fianna Fáil Leader, Micheál Martin, for the pensioners. Deputy Martin raised the issue at Leader's Questions on the first day of the new Dáil term. Senator Byrne said this underscored Fianna Fáil's total opposition to the levy and their support for the pensioners facing cuts.. "Government senators and TDs are claiming that cuts of only 0.6 per cent will be applied to private pensions. Clearly, they don't understand the policies they are voting on. The Tara Mines pensions are facing a 10 per cent cut in their take-home salary and this cannot be justified by the government," he said. "Micheál Martin rightly raised the plight of these pensioners in the Dáil and challenged Taoiseach Enda Kenny to justify the introduction of the pension levy when 28,000 further people have gone on the dole since the announcement of the government's flagship Job's Initiative in May," Senator Byrne added. Fine Gael TD Damien English said a solution "must be found" to the pensioners' crux. "I will continue to work with the Tara Mines pensioners on this. On foot of requests by myself and Shane McEntee, the Minister for Finance has agreed to investigate the claims by the trustees that there has to be a 10 per cent cut," he said. "This seems to be above and beyond what was envisaged by the pension levy. We have a full set of accounts from the representative group of pensioners that will be investigated by the Department. A solution must be found as the pensioners cannot afford to take a 10 per cent, as per their trustees," said the Meath West FG TD.