Several dozen Bank of Ireland staff pension fund (BSPF) members protested outside the bank\u2019s South Mall branch last week over reductions to their pensions.<\/p>\n
Paul Harty, a member of the Justice for the BSPF group, explained that reductions were introduced in 2010 and again in 2013, and that BSPF members agreed these as a result of the \u201cdire financial state\u201d of the bank during the financial crash.<\/p>\n
Mr Harty said: \u201cThe BSPF members felt they had no option but to accept the draconian pension changes, based on the dire state of Bank of Ireland\u2019s balance sheet at that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese changes were accepted by BSPF members, partly based on a commitment given by the bank in 2010 and 2013 to review the situation when circumstances improved,\u201d he said. However, there has been no review. \u201cThe BSPF members are furious that Bank of Ireland senior management have not shown any willingness to address this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disgust<\/p>\n
They protested outside 32 South Mall, Cork city, to demonstrate their \u201cdisgust with BoI senior management for ignoring this issue\u201d, following a similar protest outside the bank\u2019s Dublin headquarters in October.<\/p>\n
Mr Harty said: \u201cBank of Ireland\u2019s senior management\u2019s intransigence is seriously impacting the income of its current, deferred, and future Bank of Ireland staff pension fund members.\u201d<\/p>\n
A group of 80 pension members protested to show their frustration, and to demand that the pension changes be reversed in light of the huge profits that Bank of Ireland are reporting.<\/p>\n
Clawback rules<\/p>\n
The Dublin protest was organised by the retired members\u2019 committee of the Financial Services Union, with chairperson Ciaran Mahon saying: \u201cDespite record profits, no increase was granted to pensioners in the Republic of Ireland for 2024, due to the existing clawback rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cCost-of-living expenses are continuously rising. Pensions have not kept pace with these increases over the years and, because of the clawback, have been eroded, with those on lower pensions being hardest hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union noted that the bank\u2019s operating profits now exceed pre-crash levels, and that the bank had stated that it had reviewed the scheme, but had not shared the contents of that review with the union and, to date, had refused to make any changes.<\/p>\n
\n The Echo contacted Bank of Ireland for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several dozen Bank of Ireland staff pension fund (BSPF) members protested outside the bank\u2019s South Mall branch last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-159183","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}