Senator Robbie Gallagher stood in support of the Pension Promise Campaign outside Leinster House on Tuesday.
The Campaign includes Active Retirement, Age Action, National Women's Council, Senior Citizen's Parliament and SIPTU, and is calling on the Government to honour the longstanding commitment of benchmarking the rate of the State pension at 34% of total average earnings.
Senator Gallagher told Shannonside Northern Sound that poverty and deprivation are rising for older adults due to high price inflation.
He also highlighted that the risk of poverty has now doubled and 'consistent poverty' more than tripled since 2020.
Deputy Gallagher added that senior citizens deserve adequate and secure incomes.
"It's no more than they have earned after a lifetime of working, paying
taxes and contributing to their communities" he continued. "Stemming from the State's National Pensions Policy Initiative in 1998 and the Green Paper on Pensions 2007, and reiterated in the Roadmap for Pension Reform and the current Roadmap for Social Inclusion, there is a longstanding call to benchmark the rate of the State pension to 34% of gross average earnings.
"The State came close to achieving this, but the gap has widened. The Minister for Social Protection has pledged to bring an 'input' on benchmarking the State pension into Budget 2024, but this is not the legal certainty that is required.
"The 34% benchmark would provide security of income and take the politics out of the setting of the rate every budget, and it would go some way to reducing the high pension inequality faced by women, carers and people with disabilities."
