RETIRED rail and Limerick bus workers, whose pensions have been frozen at 2008 rates, took to the streets this past Monday (November 17) to highlight their struggle.
The pensioners, some in their 80s and 90s, marched from Colbert Station to the offices of Minister Kieran O’Donnell on Mallow Street to protest at the “cavalier treatment meted out to them by the Board of CIÉ and the government,” spokesman Jim Gallivan told the Limerick Post.
There are around 150 pensioners affected in the greater Limerick area and around 2,000 countrywide, Mr Gallivan revealed.
“We never had a choice about paying PRSI to qualify for a state pension as we were employed by a semi-state company. Our company pensions were set, with a yearly rise, but when the crash came in 2008, they were frozen at that rate. When the recovery began, the company said it could’t afford the rises so it’s been frozen since then,” he said.
The vulnerable elderly CIÉ pensioners now face the stark reality of their 17th Christmas without pensions increase.
“Paying 2025 prices for everyday essentials whilst trying to exist on incomes frozen at 2008 levels is incomprehensible to any right-thinking person,” Mr Gallivan said.
CIÉ pensioners are ineligible for State pensions and minimal benefits such as eye tests and routine dental treatment because, throughout their careers, they were compelled to contribute lower rates of PRSI. Budget 2026 contains no measures that would benefit this cohort of pensioners, Mr Gallivan explained.
In May 2025, CIE announced a pensions increase up to five per cent subject to changes to the existing superannuation schemes. This proposal involved ballots of employees and acceptance results announced in August. A statutory instrument must be enacted to facilitate the schemes changes; this process involves CIÉ and a number of government departments and is at complete stalemate, Mr Gallivan explained.
“There is no indication when/if the much-publicised pension increase will happen. This is shameful treatment of former employees by a semi-State company and its shareholder, the government. Unless some positive action is taken at government level, a bleak Christmas and uncertain future await CIÉ pensioners,” he said.
“The vote to have the increase has been passed, even though pensioners couldn’t take part in the ballot. Now it has to be approved by two ministers and the department. We really need to see this moving forward before the Oireachtas Christmas break.”