Tynwald members - and the public - need all the facts before a critical decision can be made on public sector pension reform.
During a House of Keys debate, backbenchers expressed concerns that the proposed reforms are based on overly optimistic assumptions about the growth of government income - and about the level of funding that the taxpayer will be expected to pay to shore up the scheme.
The Keys unanimously backed a motion tabled by Douglas East MHK Chris Robertshaw calling the Council of Ministers to provide more information before changes to the public sector pension schemes are considered by Tynwald.
CoMin postponed reform proposals at last month’s Tynwald sitting pending further deliberations.
Mr Robertshaw told the Keys: ‘It could be said that the taxpayer has been represented by an empty seat in all the private negotiations between the employers and the employees - so it is only right that the main funder should now also be as well informed as possible.’
He said the government was trying to resolve the pensions issue within its ‘own limited bubble’ - without regard to potential impact on government services or as yet unseen external financial pressures.
Mr Robertshaw said members were being asked to make a decision in an ‘act of faith’ based on ‘flimsy evidence’. ‘We can’t decide we are going to spend x, y or z on pensions if we don’t know what the other costs are going to be or even an outline of those costs,’ he said.
Michael MHK Alfred Cannan said it was ‘extremely unfortunate’ that CoMin had chosen to withdraw the Tynwald motion on a debate he said was ‘critical to every man, woman and child living and working on the Isle of Man’.
He said members ‘must know and understand the whole picture’ before accepting any deal. He pointed out that under the proposed reforms the impact on public funds would rise from £44m this year to £100m plus.
‘How is this affordable?’ he asked. ‘We can’t even deal with the black hole at present and yet here we are proposing that we can find an extra £60m in pension revenues in little more than the end of the next parliamentary term. Where is this money coming from? Is it coming from cuts? Where will these be. Charges? Upon who? Increased growth? How much?’
Chris Thomas (Douglas West) likened it to the Emperor’s new clothes. ‘We need to get this right. The truth might shock us, but we need to know,’ he said.
Policy and Reform Minister John Shimmin vowed to provide as much information as possible. But he insisted: ‘This is not a crisis - it’s a really hard challenge we going to have to rise to.’