This is a response to a post by Hugh Sheehy on an Irish Economy thread. The system appears to have some gremlins at work.
This is the issue that has been raised: Irish academics get lavish pension top-ups as private pensions struggle
@ Hugh Sheehy
Hugh,
Thanks for the link.
I had written about this issue of top-ups in 2010 when the National Pensions
Reserve Fund had taken responsibility for the 'old' university pensions that had
a deficit of more than €600m, and it's not surprising that some of the
supporting cast on the insider stage would try and drown out dissent.
This is a graphic illustration of the Irish caste system.
While profitable overseas companies and the small number of indigenous ones were
shutting down defined benefit (guaranteed payout) systems; the finance minister
was levying private pension funds; the social protection minister did not know
what to do with a report from PwC, the Big 4 accounting firm, that showed fees
ate up an average of 17% of a fund over a typical fund's time horizon (Enda
Kenny had promised Shane Ross that he would have the issue investigated when the
levy was introduced in 2011 -- Kenny is not Bill Clinton and with 3 public
pensions, even it had later crossed his mind, it would have been hard to
convince the typical SME worker that he feel's their pain) -- over 500 academics
in the bankrupt country were getting pension top-ups.
The basis for these top-ups is dodgy and the Comptroller & Auditor General said
in 2011 that the issue required investigation.
The property clause in the Constitution is usually worth a try.
However, the right of 'legitimate de facto expectation' as outlined by a
university official to the C&AG a years ago is similar to the 'droit du seigneur'
in that only people within an elite could claim it.
Why worry about inequality when it's found mostly in places with funny names?
It's official state policy to keep employer social security low and thus the low
level of employee pensions in the private sector.
Note the contrast with the racket organised by the insiders and when Brian Cowen
at the outset of the Croke Park process proposed that the link with a current
incumbent's earnings be replaced by consumer prices, the unions said it would
be a dealbreaker.
Why are bankers so selfish?