THE LABOUR PARTY’S Chairman Colm Keaveney TD has called for a super-levy on all pensions above €100,000 in order to maintain social solidarity.
Responding to a private members motion concerning the large pensions being paid to senior public servants, Deputy Keaveney said that all pensions over €100,000 a year, including in the private sector, should be subject to a levy of 10 per cent, rising to 25 per cent on pensions over €500,000.
“I would be very interested in looking at a solidarity levee so that middle Ireland gets a demonstration and are satisfied that” the pain is being shared” Deputy Keaveney told TheJournal.ie.
We need to tax it, levy it, take it back. There is a very strong sense that those people who are by and large responsible for creating the crisis will be relatively cushioned from the effects of the budget. Those in the middle who are paying for it want to see social justice.
In an angry exchange in the Dail chamber last night, Deputy Keaveney criticised Mattie McGrath for signing the motion on public sector pensions when he “tickled Bertie Ahern’s belly for 15 years.”
Asked whether banker bashing was being used to deflect attention away from the large guaranteed pensions received by government ministers, Deputy Keaveney said the current government had come down hard on favourable perks from day one.
“”We took a pay cut and we got rid of the mercs. We have tackled high pay in the semi-states had a referendum on high pay in the judiciary. If a levy means that Bertie Ahern has to pay 20 per cent extra on top of his pension lets go for it.”
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