The black hole for pensions that we are constantly warned about is going to get darker.
carried by the setback in the last general election, Taoiseach Micheál Martin draws a line under the controversy over the increase in retirement age and says: “Not on my watch.”
The anger fell from the sky in the 2020 election campaign. Where the parties wanted to talk about the economy and public services, the potential rise in the retirement age has become a recurring theme on the threshold.
In the vacuum of uncertainty, promises of no change came and fudges to have it examined by an expert group. Fine Gael and their quasi-government colleagues in Fianna Fáil wanted to get it off the field.
Now the experts have come back and the Pensions Commission has recommended that the retirement age should be raised to 67, but not for another number of years, so the issue is pushed out until the end of the decade.
The commission recommended that the retirement age increase by three months per year after 2028, to 67 in 2031, before rising to 68 in 2039. In the span of a generation, the retirement age will have increased by two years.
The retirement age reached 66 after a change of 65 in 2014 when the country emerged from the economic collapse. The move was controversial as some 65-year-olds found themselves having to sign on the maze – often for the first time in their working lives – to claim Jobseeker Benefit to fill the gap between retirement at 65 and the state pension at 66.
Under the same plan, the retirement age would be increased to 67 in 2021, and 68 in 2028 under the same plan. That timeline was reversed due to the general election malice.
Now the new timeline is also parked. The Taoiseach put his boot behind the proposals and kicked.
Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael fall back on their core voice and the base grows older. The gray voice is not to be wasted.
Martin was a member of the disastrous government that shot the Celtic Tiger.
He will remember well the madness of October 2008 when there was an attempt to test the medical card over the 70s.
The measure was changed so that it would only affect those with high incomes, but it started as a cause. The proposal was dropped after an angry crowd of 2,000 pensioners packed up at St Andrew’s Church on Westland Row, just around the corner from Leinster House, where pastors were yelling and yelling as they tried to contain the anger. has.
The gray vote revolt rose and the politicians retreated. The fear of antagonizing older voters remains.
The political power of the gray voices is also reflected in the call between the coalition parties to demand credit for the increase of the state pension in the coming budget 2023, whether it is in October or September.
However, the bill for the Taoiseach’s latest full face on retirement age will have to be paid somewhere.
The pension time bomb is still ticking. Martin openly acknowledges additional PRSI contributions will be needed to ensure that the retirement age is not increased. To keep the retirement age low, the social insurance pot will have to be replenished, which means workers and employers pay more in taxes.
Someone will have to pay the bill and that someone is younger workers who are already taxed by high taxes, high cost of living prices and high property prices, which means many will never own their own home. Meanwhile, a much larger percentage of pensioners will either be homeowners or have stable residence.
The next generation will be the first in the centenary of the existence of the State which is less well off than that which was before.
A bit like action on climate change, the retirement age will become the next generation’s problem, so why bother?