You would want to be in your health to retire.

Retiring sounds great, but getting through all the documentation can be a nightmare. One would have thought that the Department of Social Welfare had all your details and that a quick search on their data base would reveal your work history? One would have thought!

Advice to anyone considering retiring: Keep everything in a file. Keep loads of files. Keep paychecks. Keep all correspondence. Paper is much more valuable than computer records.

I went to the very well organized seminars hosted by the ASTI. Why on earth do the Departments of both Education and Social Welfare not do something similar?

How are we meant to know the intricate path through all the abbreviations.

My pension is rather modest because I have ONLY worked for 20 years. So, I can get the job seekers allowance before waiting for the Supplementary pension to kick in at 66. Who devised this scheme.? I would really like to know. Was it some smart alec accountant?,Some dim politician? Someone doing work experience in the Ministry of Finance? Was it one of these kite flyers we hear about, who fly ideas, gage public reaction and then slide it through?

Tough if you are on your holidays while the ‘kite’ is being flown.

We see the example this year with the proposition of taxing, AGAIN, a residence at the end of life. Where is the thinking here? So some people save and buy houses, get a mortgage, make payments, keep the houses maintained, up graded and fit for habitation and again, someone on work experience in the department decides: Oh, you have too much money, that was really a simple way of making money, I am sorry , I did not think of that myself, why on earth should you keep all of it, surely you can give us a percentage, so that I can make my goals this year because I want to stay in the general category of excellent, excels in all aspects of job that 99% of civil servants exist in.