Country Living

Grey Army still packs quite a powerful pension punch

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A lampooning cartoon image from 1924, highlighting the contrast between the salaries of Oireachtas members at the time and the Old Age Pension cut of one shilling that had just been introduced by then Minister for Finance, Ernest Blythe.

Country Living with Francis Farragher

I’m not sure whether he ever really said it or not, but American comic and actor, W.C. Fields, who made a name for himself in the first half of the 20th century, is credited with the line of: “Never work with animals or children,” a remark normally associated with the world of film and show business.

Over the past couple of weeks as the political atmosphere started to heat up as we prepare for D-day on February 8, I was trying to conjure up a similar saying that might apply for all our friends who are seeking to serve us in high office over the coming few years.

The best I could come up with was: “Never mess with grey heads or water” as a previously hidden avalanche of fury descended on our political establishment when one of the parties with a good nose for scenting gaps in the market proposed the return of the pension age to 65.

Given that this is an apolitical column, no party can be mentioned by name but the one whose nickname rhymes with dinners, saw the niche in the market, and now all the rest of the them, have again realised that you don’t mess around with the grey brigade, or even those of us who are more follicly challenged.

If there’s one thing about the ‘Grey Army’, they are probably far more likely to vote than the younger cohort of the population whose contact with the outside world seems to be getting increasingly concentrated on their social media interchanges.

There are many of us who have been lucky enough to have worked all our lives but over recent years I’ve noticed a seething resentment at the notion of having to ‘sign on’ for so-called Jobseekers Benefit in that Limbo period between 65 and the current pension qualifying age of 66, which is set to be pushed out to 67 in 2021.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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