INDEPENDENT KERRY South TD Jackie Healy-Rae has asked the Government to postpone its pension levy proposals “as a matter of urgency” until it was shown that what was proposed was fair and equitable
He said that as they stood the proposals were grossly unfair to public service workers at the bottom of the ladder.
“I have every sympathy for the public service workers who are hit with this and the financial effects it will have on them. It is grossly unfair to people on the lower end of the ladder,” he said.
Some people were now cancelling health insurance and other outgoings in the light of the pension levy proposals, the TD said.
In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Healy-Rae said he had “called on” the chief whip Pat Carey and the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, in relation to the proposed pension levy.
Over 100 people had called to his clinic and had received “lots of letters and e-mails” on the matter.
“I am now awaiting a favourable reply from the Government,” he said in the press release.
Mr Healy-Rae’s criticism of the pension levy follows that of Fianna Fáil councillors in Kerry. After a special meeting on Monday, 11 councillors took the unusual step of issuing a press release critical of Government policy on the matter.
The councillors said they had resolved to call on the Government to amend the pension levy scheme “as in its present format the scheme is neither fair nor equitable”. The group is led by Paul O’Donoghue, brother of the Ceann Comhairle, John O’Donoghue.