Ms Máiréad Hayes:

There are different issues here. One is about activation of older people. At the beginning of austerity or the recession, the tendency was not to activate older people. We are now seeing that trend changing because there are more people employed. The skills of older people will again be recognised. We are seeing people in their 60s being activated, which we had not experienced at the beginning. We would always make the point that the skill sets they bring, as evidenced by the contributions here, are very important.

I wonder whether it is possible to put a question. I am not sure about the protocol. Two equality Bills have been brought forward by committees. There is the longer healthy living Bill and the other equality Bill. These Bills seek to do the same thing, namely, to allow people to work longer. This Bill is simple. That has been mentioned before. I know groups have been working in this regard because I have participated with some of the people from the law group, particularly Mr. Loughlin Deegan, and have had conversations on this. Is it within the power of the committee, along with other committees - I know there are different Departments - to push this as an objective before this Dáil finishes? That is what is important. There are a lot of things that can be worked around.

What the witness from the community and voluntary sector is saying is that there are so many community and voluntary groups which are going to have to disband, including our one, because they have no funding. That is a huge issue for people. It is about the principle. I am concerned that this would work particularly well for the public sector but not so much for Ms O'Toole's situation as she is in retail and may not have as much power. It should be a choice for everybody, not just for people in the public sector. I appreciate the scarcity of skills and that is very important. We are hopefully moving into a different era now, as 2016 looms. I would say to the legislators that they should make it an objective to get this through before the end of this Dáil.