{"id":441184,"date":"2026-02-23T12:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441184\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:25:09","slug":"cie-pensioners-to-march-on-taoiseachs-office-in-protest-over-pension-increase-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/441184\/","title":{"rendered":"CI\u00c9 pensioners to march on Taoiseach\u2019s office in protest over pension increase \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former CI\u00c9<\/a> workers are to march on the office of the Taoiseach in Cork<\/a> on Monday to highlight the delay in paying them an increase in their pensions. <\/p>\n

They argue that some on pensions as low as \u20ac10,000 are struggling to meet the rising cost of living since their last increase almost 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

John Bowen of the CI\u00c9 Salaried Pensioners Association said that the group has up to 2,500 retired Dublin Bus, Bus \u00c9ireann and Iarnr\u00f3d \u00c9ireann employees, who are all affected by the delay in paying them the 5 per cent pension increase agreed last May<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the people affected would have over 40 years\u2019 service \u2013 some are in their 90s and most are in their 80s and some are struggling to survive on pensions as low as \u20ac10,000 or \u20ac11,000, which is lower than the State non-contributory pension for which they can\u2019t qualify,” he said. <\/p>\n

Bowen said staff who joined CI\u00c9 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.<\/p>\n

The D1 stamp meant CI\u00c9 workers were only paying 1 per cent of their wages into their statutory pension scheme. The company was also paying a reduced employers\u2019 PRSI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reasonable expectation of CI\u00c9 employees was that their contribution to the statutory pension schemes would provide them with adequate incomes when they retired and into old age and CI\u00c9 met that contractual obligation by paying annual pension increases up until 2008,\u201c said Bowen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve got no increases since 2008. If we were able to get the old-age pension, there would be no problem but we can\u2019t get that because of the D1 stamp plus we\u2019re also losing out on things like the fuel allowance, living alone allowance and an extra payment to people over 80.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bowen said many CI\u00c9 pensioners were now living below the poverty line and struggling to deal withcost-of-living increases. .<\/p>\n

He said that in May 2025, CI\u00c9 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 CI\u00c9 pensioners are still waiting.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Mich\u00e9al 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 CI\u00c9 pensioners are growing increasingly frustrated with the government, said Bowen.<\/p>\n

Martin told Galway West Fianna F\u00e1il TD John Connolly in the D\u00e1il that \u201cmy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Bowen told The Irish Times that Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien needs to introduce a statutory instrument in the D\u00e1il to facilitate changes to the schemes and this involves CI\u00c9 and three government departments, but it seems to be stuck.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we are marching from Kent Station in Cork to Mich\u00e9al Martin\u2019s office on Evergreen Road today and two of the Taoiseach\u2019s constituents will hand him a letter expressing our dissatisfaction and frustration at having to turn with the equivalent of begging bowls.<\/p>\n

\u201cBudget 2026 offered nothing to our members, many of whom are now suffering hardship due to the shameful inaction of the board of CI\u00c9 and the government – no CI\u00c9 board member or politician is waiting 18 years for a pay increase. All we want is parity, not charity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former CI\u00c9 workers are to march on the office of the Taoiseach in Cork on Monday to highlight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[160605,84,66532,17713,160604,4176,160606,62156,6723,5107,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-441184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-bus-eireann","tag-business","tag-cie","tag-cork","tag-darragh-o-brien","tag-finance","tag-iarnrod-eireann","tag-jack-chambers","tag-micheal-martin","tag-pension","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}