Former CIÉ workers are to march on the office of the Taoiseach in Cork on Monday to highlight the delay in paying them an increase in their pensions.

They argue that some on pensions as low as €10,000 are struggling to meet the rising cost of living since their last increase almost 20 years ago.

John Bowen of the CIÉ Salaried Pensioners Association said that the group has up to 2,500 retired Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann employees, who are all affected by the delay in paying them the 5 per cent pension increase agreed last May.

“Most of the people affected would have over 40 years’ service – some are in their 90s and most are in their 80s and some are struggling to survive on pensions as low as €10,000 or €11,000, which is lower than the State non-contributory pension for which they can’t qualify,” he said.

Bowen said staff who joined CIÉ before April 6th, 1995 paid a D1 stamp, which is a PRSI category specifically for permanent, pensionable public service employees and provided limited social insurance benefits and excluded them from the contributory State pension.

The D1 stamp meant CIÉ workers were only paying 1 per cent of their wages into their statutory pension scheme. The company was also paying a reduced employers’ PRSI.

“The reasonable expectation of CIÉ employees was that their contribution to the statutory pension schemes would provide them with adequate incomes when they retired and into old age and CIÉ met that contractual obligation by paying annual pension increases up until 2008,“ said Bowen.

“But we’ve got no increases since 2008. If we were able to get the old-age pension, there would be no problem but we can’t get that because of the D1 stamp plus we’re also losing out on things like the fuel allowance, living alone allowance and an extra payment to people over 80.”

Bowen said many CIÉ pensioners were now living below the poverty line and struggling to deal withcost-of-living increases. .

He said that in May 2025, CIÉ announced pension increases up to 5 per cent, subject to changes to the current statutory pension schemes, and employees on the proposed scheme voted to accept it – but almost 10 months on, the CIÉ pensioners are still waiting.

Taoiseach Michéal Martin had told journalists on January 30th that he and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Jack Chambers were committed to delivering the long-awaited rise, but the CIÉ pensioners are growing increasingly frustrated with the government, said Bowen.

Martin told Galway West Fianna Fáil TD John Connolly in the Dáil that “my understanding is that nothing is holding it up and the Minister for Public Expenditure is clear that he wants this delivered. I will get full clarity and precision, but I am pursuing it as well.”

But Bowen told The Irish Times that Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien needs to introduce a statutory instrument in the Dáil to facilitate changes to the schemes and this involves CIÉ and three government departments, but it seems to be stuck.

“That’s why we are marching from Kent Station in Cork to Michéal Martin’s office on Evergreen Road today and two of the Taoiseach’s constituents will hand him a letter expressing our dissatisfaction and frustration at having to turn with the equivalent of begging bowls.

“Budget 2026 offered nothing to our members, many of whom are now suffering hardship due to the shameful inaction of the board of CIÉ and the government – no CIÉ board member or politician is waiting 18 years for a pay increase. All we want is parity, not charity.”