Pension issue must be addressed - Brown

The chief minister is vowing that government will do the best it can for the people it employs when it comes to pensions.

Tony Brown says it's vital that anyone affected by potential changes to the current schemes has a say in the proposals.

A three month public consultation will begin early next month on recommendations to unify the 15 different arrangements which operate at present into a single, final salary scheme.

Mr Brown (pictured) says government has a responsibility to react to a potential crisis in public service pension provision.

And he believes that with the threat of increased taxes, and job and spending cuts if the matter is ignored, now is the right time to address what could otherwise become a major problem.

He told Manx Radio:

"We can't hide from it because we have to fund from tax income and other incomes government receives.

"We have to fund wages, pensions, services and everything, so we can't ignore it.

"Our responsibility as publicly elected representatives and as the government of the Isle of Man is to the tax payer and to the populus in general, so what we have to do is consider all the factors that come before us.

"It would be very easy for us just to ignore this factor, but somebody, somewhere else would have to pick it up."

More on Friday's Mandate.