Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

-----where the exact opposite is happening. It is extraordinary and bizarre. The books were being rational in claiming that our working lives and week should be shorter. That was the expectation in the late 1960s right up to the early 1980s, but we have gone in the opposite direction. People living longer is now a problem and a cost, and we must make them work longer. Where did all of the wealth that was produced as a result of the increased productivity go? The amount of wealth that our society has produced has increased exponentially, so we should be able to afford people living longer. It should not be a problem. Mr. Gaynor is correct in that is it not a problem objectively. Rather, it is a problem because the system is structured incorrectly and the people who benefited from the exponential growth in wealth are not the ones who did the work and made the contributions. We must debate this issue. To be clear, Mr. Gaynor is proposing that we revert to the 65-year mark and that we should not entertain an increase in the working lifetime unless that is what individuals want to do on a voluntary basis.