Mr. Fergus Whelan:

We are where we are. I believe this is a terrible injustice, but some of it has been done already and I cannot see any circumstances where the Department is going to bring back the pension age to 65 years. However, I believe that if there is going to be any mitigation of the injustice, then the second raise in the pension age should be pushed out to something along the lines of what is in the rest of Europe and that we should not go to 68 years.

By the way, I think Mr. Gaynor made a very articulate point in respect of people like himself and his colleagues who have worked all their lives in gainful employment and have never been unemployed. If I understood him correctly, he took the view that putting him on jobseeker's allowance was somewhat belittling for someone who had never been unemployed. I do not see it that way. I see it as someone getting an entitlement that he has paid for.