Letters to the Editor: An Post retirees demand an end to 'unjust' pension accord
St, Office Organised Protest Post Cork, An Post Plunkett Cummins Gpo, Larry United The Oliver At By Pensioners Friday's Picture:
l am a retired Department of Post and Telegraphs/An Post worker who has given 42 years loyal service. There are 7,000 retired Department of Post and Telegraphs/An Post pensioners nationwide.
We as pensioners are being deprived financially because of an unjust 10-year pension accord which was to terminate in 2023. This accord restricts An Post pensioners from receiving parity with An Post staff pay awards.
The terms of this accord limit An Post pensioners to a maximum of 2% increase with pay awards to An Post staff.
However, there is a defined stipulation with this percentage limit, in that it is aligned with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). For example, if the CPI is 0.7% then any pension increase will reflect this amount, instead of 2%.
This pension accord, which was implemented in 2013 by An Post and the postal workers’ unions is 11 years old and has caused unnecessary economic hardship to many An Post pensioners.
We have given dedicated and loyal service, as state and semi-state employees, and deserve to have this accord terminated, and to have our pensions restored to pre-2013 conditions.
Like many others who had the pleasure of knowing and working with him, I would like to pay my own personal tribute to Ken Reid who passed away recently.
In my early days as a young Alliance Party politician, Ken and I were in almost daily contact when he was a journalist for the Belfast News Letter and its sister paper, the Sunday News. In those days, he affectionately gave me the nickname ‘The Cush’.
Then when I retired as as leader of the Alliance Party, it was around the same time that he had moved to Cork to work for . At this time, he invited me to do a column for this paper entitled ‘Voice from the North’.
I believe that taking up his invitation, and the exposure it gave me in Cork and the rest of Munster, contributed in part to the subsequent invitation I received from Cork North-West Fine Gael — led by Finbarr Fitzpatrick and Richard Green — and Alan Dukes to seek the Fine Gael nomination to be a candidate for the 1989 European Parliament election.
I am indebted to him for that and I enjoyed working with him again (and other journalists) up until he returned to Northern Ireland to work for UTV.
He was an exceptional journalist who was highly respected and who always acted with great integrity and courage. It was an honour and a privilege to work with him. I also considered him to be good friend.
I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to his wife, Liz, and his children, Gareth, Sarah, and Sophie, and his extended family; and also to the many journalists in both parts of Ireland who had the fortune to work alongside him during very difficult times.
Regarding the article — ‘€20 toll proposed for main bridge going into Killorglin town’ (Irish Examiner, online, November 27) — this is a ridiculous proposal and a tax on tourism, all because successive governments and councils have failed to invest in the Ring of Kerry road infrastructure and hardly an incentive for bus owners to dally in Killorglin.
In the late 1960s and early ’70s, politicians had the guts to build a proper bridge from Portmagee to Valentia, it has been obvious all my lifetime that the Killorglin bridge needed fixing and I wrote to another newspaper about it around 20 or so years ago but, like housing and other infrastructure expenditure, it has been ignored by the politicians — and then they wonder why there are so many Independents standing in the elections.
Mother Nature has sent me my free sample of storms for 2024. I have been introduced to storms this year by the names of Henk, Isha, Jocelyn, Kathleen, Lilian, and Ashley. I have now been introduced to the new and recent edition to this family — Storm Bert.
Having received my free sample of storms for 2024, I wish that Mother Nature would cancel forthwith my storm subscription and my free sample of winter too.
As a lifelong member of the GAA and as someone who has served in many capacities including on the previous Football Review Committee (FRC), chaired by the late Eugene McGee, it is with complete sadness that I must comment on the set of proposals which will be tabled at Saturday’s Special Congress.
If the proposals were universally regarded as excellent, all the literature on change management would advise against tabling seven major changes in one go, on the basis that it would be better practice to seek to introduce maybe three or four at most, holding the others back until that number had settled in.
As to the proposals themselves and the multiple issues arising from almost every single one, the grand total of items on the agenda comes to 49. Some are grouped and some are fairly minor or insignificant. But there are 49 proposed changes to Gaelic football — in one fell swoop.
Rather than take up space listing the changes being suggested, let me address the followers of Gaelic football and the delegates to Congress with just one example.
Part of ‘Proposal Number Five’ reads as follows: “The player taking a kick-out may kick the ball more than once before any other player touches it but may not take the ball into the hands. The ball shall travel not less than 13m and outside the 40m arc before being played by another player of the defending team.”
Meanwhile none of the proposals involves any reference to the hand-pass.
Now, please ask yourself how many times you’ve heard people say “when a kick-out is being taken, we’ll have to let the goalkeeper touch the ball more than once with his foot”?
And how many times have you heard someone say “something needs to be done to limit hand-passing”?
If this block of changes is introduced, creating an entirely new game, we will have to wait for the poor unfortunate referees to bring matters to a head, during or after the National Football League.
Instead of attempting to railroad the entire package through, which is the widely held expectation, it might be wiser to allow delegates to think for themselves and to choose carefully. They could either reject or postpone some of the more unwieldy proposals, especially some of those that pile impossible tasks on referees.
There is still time for people to consider the madness of some of these proposals.
But as Groucho Marx observed, and in the spirit of the season fast approaching, it would seem “there is no sanity clause”.
“So this is Christmas. And what have you done? Another year over. And a new one just begun” — is my John Lennon inspired question to National Broadband Ireland (NBI).
In November 2019, the National Broadband Plan (NBP) contract was signed. Connection targets were puffed up while gung-ho language was spoken to say this project will be driven like witches who could not be burned.
Oh, the Santa-like innocence.
In 2024, the NBI engineering survey for my townland was completed. Now comes the network design phase. Anticipated date for connection: December/ January 2026. In other words, don’t wait in.
Rural communities in Ireland have been promised broadband connectivity dates that fail to address the urgent need for digital access for businesses, telecommuters, and individuals.
As we progress further into the digital age, the disparity in broadband availability between urban and rural areas becomes more glaring and unacceptable.
The geographical location of one’s home or workplace should not serve as a barrier to full participation in the e-society.
Digital connectivity is no longer a luxury but a fundamental necessity for economic development, education, healthcare, and social inclusion.
Rural residents deserve the same opportunities for digital connectivity as their urban counterparts.
The history of fibre broadband provision in Ireland is a tale of lofty promises unmet by actual progress.
Commitments have been made repeatedly, yet rural communities continue to wait, their needs sidelined by a lack of ambition and effective delivery.
This ongoing delay not only stifles economic growth but also perpetuates the digital divide, isolating rural populations, and denying them the benefits of modern technology.
For Ireland to truly thrive as a digital nation, it is imperative that immediate and decisive action is taken to ramp up the roll out of fibre broadband across rural townlands. Only then can we ensure that every citizen, regardless of their location, is connected and able to contribute to, and benefit from, our increasingly digital world.
To reflect the views of rural residents, a rewording of the John Lennon song makes a slow digital plea to NBI: “Dial-up is over, fibre broadband is available if you want it, and yes, we do want it.”