New York New York

What a city – a place that never sleeps. Twenty hopefuls set off on Sunday 25 May 2008 but due to a computer glitch the plane remained grounded until the following morning. We bunked down in glorious City West Hotel (Dublin) not under the starry skies of Manhatten. The subsequent plane crash in Madrid made us feel so grateful that Aer Lingus took no chances.

Our itinerary included a trip to the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We visited the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museums. We took time off to reflect on 9/11 at Ground Zero. We also were in St Patrick’s Cathedral.
One of our memorable activities was a helicopter ride over Manhatten. We cruised down the Hudson River and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

We had a romantic ride by horse and carriage through Central Park. We enjoyed our evening at Swan Lake performed by the New York Ballet Company. We also shopped! What a whirlwind holiday!!

We really appreciate the effort and expertise of Louis O’Flaherty, guide and mentor who put so much enthusiasm into organising this trip.

New York New York we can’t wait to see you again.

Eileen Brennan Wicklow Branch.

A Summer Outing

A group of 35 of us including some spouses/ partners/ friends had an outstandingly enjoyable day in Cavan on May 21st. We were incredibly lucky to get a nice clear sunny day. The days preceding the event were wet and windy and the day after was a complete wash out altogether.

We had an excellent lunch in the Cavan Radisson Hotel followed by a coach tour down winding narrow roads through some really scenic areas. We stopped to visit the Church of Ireland Cathedral and Bishop Bedell's grave at Kilmore.

The tour also included Owen Roe O' Neill's Castle and Crossdoney where O'Neill camped after the battle of Benburb. We completed the day with a tour of Cavan Town and bid each other farewell back at the Radisson over tea with muffins and home made sandwiches.

RSTA member Jim Hannon organized the day and excelled as a guide and raconteur

Michael McMahon North Eastern Branch.

Visit to Stormont

Great interest was shown earlier this year in a proposed trip to Stormont.

On 11 June 47 RSTA members from Dublin and Wicklow travelled by train to Belfast at the invitation of the retired NASUWT colleagues. They very kindly met us at Belfast Central and took us by private coach to Castlerea Golf Club for lunch and then on to Stormont.

The visit was organised by them through Lord Brown, MLA for East Belfast. There was an interesting tour of the building, including the newly refurbished Assembly Room, redesigned with an emphasis on being as inclusive and non-confrontational as possible; tables etc normally in the centre of the room, were removed and members sit in an oval shaped gathering rather than directly facing each other.

The tour was followed by a reception in the Long Gallery where we were addressed by Mervyn Stokey MLA, Chair of the Educational Committee in the Assembly, who warmly welcomed the two groups.

He showed great interest in our continuing friendships and the exchange of visits North and South. He told us that he enjoyed a long standing friendship with Eamon O Cuiv, our Minister for the Gaeltacht and the Islands, who long ago had expressed a wish to meet Dr Paisley on Rathlin Island. This meeting, initially unimaginable, had recently taken place and marked one of the proudest moments of his career.

We all found the visit well worth while and once again enjoyed the warm welcome we always receive on our journeys to the North. We thank our Northern colleagues for organizing this event and later in the year we hope to arrange further visits.

Nuala O’Connor Dublin Branch.

THE RETIRED WORKERS’ COMMITTEE OF THE IRISH CONGRESS OF TRADE UNIONS

The RETIRED WORKERS COMMITTEE, on which the RSTA is represented, met on a regular basis during the past year.

Apart from attending the government seminar on pensions in the Gresham Hotel in Feb. 2008, the committee also held its own seminar which was addressed by Fergus Whelan (ICTU) and Professor Gerard Hughes of Trinity College.

The discussions on the Green Paper resulted in the preparation of a submission outlining the committee’s position. While the Green Paper is a comprehensive document covering all aspects of pension policy, the committee’s focus was on the following areas of priority;

The importance of keeping parity between wages and pensions

Pensioner’s income adequacy

Pension tax reliefs

Mandatory pensions

Demography

At a meeting with David Begg and officers of Congress it was agreed that the concerns of the RWC would be included in Congress’s submission to the government on the Green Paper.

Members also attended a North South Seminar in Dundalk in March which covered a wide range of issues affecting older people on the island of Ireland. The three main issues which came to the fore were;

Pensions

Health

Infrastructure-transport and Care

A representative of the RWC attends meeting of FERPA (The European Federation of Retired and Elderly People). This body recently decided to collect data on the purchasing power of elderly and retired people’s incomes received as pensions. ‘The rising cost of pensions to public budgets has led many governments to reform (or try to) their systems in recent years.

These reforms have been complex and diverse but the clear underlying trend is towards a lower pension promise for today’s (and tomorrow’s) workers and pensioners than that of past generations’ One finding shows that Ireland is one of a group of 5 countries which has the highest poverty risk for the elderly population. In Ireland 27.1% of pensioners live at risk of poverty and 3.3% in constant poverty.

The meetings of the RWC will resume in September in the IRISH CONGRESS OF TRADE UNIONS Office in Parnell SQ.