Miriam Lord is on fireplace right now within the Irish Occasions. Anybody watching RTÉ yesterday (or certainly Virgin Media One) may have seen a giant flare up over the federal government’s pensions. He’s the brief model of how that modified in lower than a day.
“The cat is out of the bag,” cried Mary Lou McDonald, having fun with a hey presto! second within the Dáil.
“Allow us to name it what it’s: a Malicious program.”
So the cat is out of the bag and it’s a horse.
No marvel the Taoiseach appeared perplexed.
What’s all of it about? Nicely, it’s the identical pensions time bomb most western international locations are apprehensive about. Within the UK the federal government has merely slammed up the age at which notably ladies born within the Fifties can retire.
The Republic’s authorities has truly tried to face the issue and if it hasn’t fastened it has provide you with a hybrid answer which provides those that can work on till 70 enhanced pensions while giving those that have to retire at 66 the precise to take action.
Miriam once more:
As quickly because the Minister introduced, Sinn Féin denounced. The Opposition chief defined at a press convention why she is so “very alarmed” by the brand new proposal, which “is simply virtually a Malicious program to boost the pension age in actuality to the age of 70″.
By early afternoon, when the Dáil reconvened with Leaders’ Questions, there was no query of it being an “virtually” horse when she dramatically unmasked the Authorities’s sneaky steed and threw buckets of chilly water over it.
Not a phrase on the just lately launched cat.
In steps Micheál Martin…
The Taoiseach stood in awe of his Opposition counterpart. “You don’t know the place you’re coming from, deputy.”
No matter about any Malicious program, “folks will be capable of retire at 66 in precisely — in precisely — the identical approach they’ll right now,” he defined, including that no person is being coerced into working till they’re 70. “We’re creating alternative for folks as nicely.”
He targeted on the again finish of the pantomime horse. “The underside line could be very clear right here: the pension age is 66.”
However that additional yr made all of the distinction to the chief of Sinn Féin.
Unusual that, mused Micheál Martin, on condition that her get together in Northern Eire voted unanimously to peg eligibility on the similar age.
And…
Intrigued by the Malicious program line, the Taoiseach puzzled “who made this up for you?” That query went unanswered however whoever it was extracted most worth for his or her effort.
An hour after Leaders’ Questions, a press launch went out from Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly and Claire Kerrane lambasting the Authorities for its “ploy” to boost the pension age to 70. The opening line from Louise learn: “The federal government’s newly introduced pension plan quantities to nothing greater than a Malicious program…”
The get together’s employment spokesperson later appeared on RTÉ’s Drivetime programme the place she welcomed the Authorities’s adoption of facets of Sinn Féin coverage within the new proposals whereas nonetheless pushing the horsey line.
The place was the “stealth” side of the plan, puzzled presenter Cormac O’hEadhra, and the way is Sinn Féin proposing to get the cash to pay for its pension coverage?
Lastly…
At this stage, the poor horse didn’t have a lot of a leg to face on having been flogged for a lot of the day by the get together.
“We’re going to want to have a dialog with employers and with employees and we have to make that collective resolution.…and I feel we might want to have a really open dialogue… and I stay up for that dialog as a result of that could be a nationwide dialog [that needs to be had],” Louise gamely waffled, as nonetheless the pension time bomb ticks.
The eponymous horse unusually disassembled in only a few hours…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Web on politics and the broader media and is an everyday visitor and talking occasions throughout Eire, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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