Greetings All – We’d like to update you on what’s been happening
- AGM
Approximately 150 Association members attended the AGM in person, and a small number of members attended via Zoom. This year we had a guest speaker, Dr Nat O’Connor.
There were 3 key areas of attention for the committee in a busy 2024:
• Lobbying for pension increases for our members
• Doing our best to ensure that our pension is kept safe from being used by RTÉ …
• Trying to ensure that pensioners have a national voice about what happens to their pensions
Briefly, regarding pension increases, we are presently lobbying the trustees to propose a 5% increase for 2025, to ensure that we keep up with national wage agreement increases.
Eugene Murray (elected trustee) said the Superannuation fund is in good shape.
The speaker was –
Dr Nat O’Connor, Policy Advisor to Age Action and Assistant Professor of Social Policy at the School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, University College Dublin (UCD), gave a talk to the gathering. The title of his talk was: Addressing pensioners’ economic and social challenges in Ireland’s imminent general election.
See draft AGM minutes here
- ISCP and Pensions Network
The AGM minutes outline some developments that have taken place in the Oireachtas which potentially could be very beneficial for all retired people. It is called the Industrial relations Bill 2021 (Provisions in respect of pension and entitlements of retired workers). Many of our members have already been very active in lobbying politicians on this bill. The RTÉRSA is working actively with the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament (ISCP) and a wide group of other pensioners associations to ensure that pensioners have a presence at the table if our pensions are being affected. See AGM minutes for further details – here
- Members Concerns
These are some of the issues that our members have voiced concerns about and that the committee is presently working on– Please let us know of any other concerns you have that you’d like us to consider trying to address on your behalf –
Regular notice to members re deceased colleagues
We are examining how we can better inform members in the RTÉRSA about the deaths of our former colleagues. We’re starting a regular monthly insert on the RTÉRSA website to let members know about these (subject to confirmation on rip.ie or other published notification). This information would also be contained in our regular updates by email and post to members.
The RTÉRSA is sometimes informed directly of deaths (and we encourage you to inform us) and the RTÉ Staff Past and Present Facebook page also often has this information on it. https://www.facebook.com/groups/138287099307641/permalink/413335751802773/
It would be very useful for us to receive this information from the RTÉ Superannuation Scheme (RTÉSA) also and we have recently written to them to request that they do so.
See our most recent list of deceased members that Phil Healy has collated here
Interest on Credit Union savings
Many of our retired members have expressed their concern that, despite the RTÉ credit union operating principle of giving a return on savings and deposits, they receive no dividends on the savings they have with the RTÉCU. It’s several years since long-standing members received a dividend and this leaves members extremely disadvantaged during the ongoing cost of living crisis. On behalf of our members, we’ve just recently written to Mr Patrick Kinsella, Chairperson RTÉ Credit Union, to request the credit unions’ consideration of a policy to grant dividends on savings held by members.
Access to RTÉ for members
When members first retired from RTÉ, many were under the impression that they would still have some (limited) access to the RTÉ campus e.g, access to RTÉ Club. With new security measures, access has become increasing difficult. We are trying to see whether this can be rectified.
Best Regards to All
RTÉRSA committee