The Family and Social Solidarity Ministry said it had never been the intention of the minister or anyone else at the ministry to ignore the Alliance of Pensioners’ Organisations.

It was referring to a news conference held the previous day by the alliance. The government, the ministry said, had shown that it had no problem with consultation. In fact, even before the news conference, it had already agreed to hold a meeting between a technical group and then another with the minister next month. The minister had felt the alliance should first meet a technical group so that they would understand the implications of what was being proposed.

The next step that would be taken, as had been pointed out to the alliance in correspondence, was to consider other aspects of the pensions sector, particularly anomalies and situations that affect existing pensioners, the ministry said.