ALLIANCE OF RETIRED PUBLIC SERVANTS LOBBYING TOOLKIT
Summary
What To Do Now
- Write to or phone all your local Oireachtas members and make an appointment to meet
- Explain why you’re doing it – you want to talk to them about restoring your pension
- If you can’t meet them, call their office and speak to them by phone or write a personal letter
- Remember to thank them for their time and attention – courtesy is a long term investment
What To Say
- Thank the Oireachtas member for meeting you or talking to you
- Explain that you are concerned about pensions being restored well before 2021
- Set out how the pension cuts have affected you and your family
- Explain that this will be made worse if pensions aren’t restored due to rising costs
- Also point out that there’s a real justice issue here as tens of thousands of pensioners have died and will die before their pensions are restored
- Ask them directly to commit to ensuring the Government agrees to restoring pensions before 2021 through the pay talks process
- Thank them for their time and for listening
Some Key Points
- The Programme for Government says it may be 2021 before your pension is fully restored – that would mean a full 10 years of deductions from your pension!
- Low paid pensioners – those on pensions of €12,000 or less – haven’t had an increase in their pensions in 10 years, with no prospect of one until, at least, 2021
- Prices have been rising over recent years – particularly health, fuel and energy costs – so our reduced pensions are worth even less now.
- Over 4,000 public service pensioners die every year, so that means that over 24,000 retired public servants have died without getting their pensions back with a further 16,000 to follow if the Government sticks to 2021 for restoration.
- The average public service pension is approximately €20,000 – this is in no way a ‘gold-plated’ pension
Persuade Not Threaten
- Using threats is a very high risk approach – most politicians respond badly to being threatened
- As a result, they may not support us now or in the future
- Threats depend on force of numbers not on the justice of the case, we have a strong case so let’s use it!