15 October 2017
By Mary Bermingham
mary@TheCork.ie
Sinn Féin MEP Liadh Ní Riada has called on the Government to reverse a rule which is seeing women lose out on their pensions.
The Ireland South MEP said she is supporting Uplift and the National Women’s Council of Ireland in their campaign to have the effects of the infamous ‘Marriage Bar’ reversed.
Liadh ni Riada MEP
Prior to 1973 the bar forced women to leave their jobs once they got married meaning tens of thousands missed out on PRSI stamps and as a result did not qualify for a full pension.
“It is absolutely outrageous that in this day and age people are living with the very real consequences of a ludicrous law that was already backwards and outdated when it was introduced in 1932,” she said.
“More than 47,000 women are being denied their full pensions as a result of it and I wholeheartedly support the campaign to have this egregious injustice corrected.
“It is long past time the Government addressed this issue. The full restoration of their pensions is the least these women deserve after being forced to give up their jobs by a string of conservative Governments that abandoned the principles of equality outlined in the Proclamation and Democratic Programme of the Dáil as soon as they got their hands on the reigns of power.”
