Government accused of handing tax break to those with ‘gold-plated’ pensions

By David Young, PA

Sinn Féin has accused the Government of handing a “massive tax break” to high earners with “gold-plated pensions”.

The party’s finance spokesman Pearse Doherty branded the move to increase the Standard Fund Threshold (SFT) as “madness”.

On Wednesday, Minister for Finance Jack Chambers announced that the €2 million SFT would be increased by €200,000 in 2026, followed by three similar rises in the following three years to bring it up to €2.8 million in 2029.

The move followed the publication of an independent examination of the threshold.

The threshold is the amount of money people can have in their pension pot before being subject to additional tax liabilities.

Mr Doherty raised the decision during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Thursday.

“Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil want the taxpayer to fund these gold-plated pensions until they reach €2.8 million in size. Madness,” he said.

“Asking those who work in Tesco or nurses or guards or firefighters or teachers to help build up the pension pots of those at the very top to the tune of €2.8 million, so they can retire with the State-supported pension of €100,000 per year, is madness.”

Mr Doherty added: “This is the wrong choice that the Government’s making at any time, but definitely the wrong time when we’re dealing with a crisis in terms of cost of living, and workers and families are struggling, and I’m not surprised at Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, because we always know where their priorities are at.”

Responding on behalf of the Government, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said there was a need for some “reality” in the debate.

He highlighted that the threshold had at one point been €5 million and was subsequently reduced down to €2 million.

The Minister said the main focus of the Government was supporting middle income workers contributing to their own pensions while also delivering increases on the state pension.

“What you’re trying to do here is to create an impression that Government are looking after a small cohort of people and not anyone else,” he told Mr Doherty.

“That’s not the case at all. This is an independent report that Government are acting on in a very structured way, in a phased way as well.

“And no changes will take place next year, as you know, and there will be a phased approach to increasing the Standard Funding Threshold from 2026 onwards.

“That’s actually what’s happening.”