Mr. Tony Kenny:

Very briefly, to echo Dr. Shanahan's point, discrimination is a very interesting concept at a societal level. Part of how we begin to deal with it is to name it. Age discrimination is still very sotto vocein our society. It is talked about but in whispers. I will give a short anecdote. A friend of mine lost his job at 62. He sent out 600 applications and got one or two responses. Somebody told him to take his age off his application and he got eight or ten responses from the next 20 or 30 he sent out. It is a live issue in our society but we tend not to talk about it. This Bill sends a powerful message from the Oireachtas and the people of Ireland that this should be an unacceptable practice.