Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very much in favour of allowing a person to retire when he or she felt, as Deputy Clare Daly stated, still capable of doing the job. Some people are still very capable at the point of retiring.

There is another side to it that we must be wary of, for example, where teachers retire and for some reason or other are re-employed. This is depriving young teachers of jobs, but I do not know how we can legislate for that. This must be properly thought out. It is unfair that a teacher retires and has his or her pension, but the next thing he or she is working again and a young teacher who is qualified cannot get a job. If such young teachers get jobs, they may have to travel to the other end of the country and be away from home. They have the cost of that and the job is not as good as it should be after many years in college getting qualifications and jumping every hurdle. They find they cannot get proper jobs. I was with somebody who was home from America the other day. He is 77 years of age and is driving a lorry in New Jersey and New York. He is in perfect health and well capable of doing his job. I am sure if one told that man that he had to give up work tomorrow, he would probably die very shortly after that because he lives for it and he is good at it. There are two sides to Deputy John Brady's Bill.

I again thank Deputy Brady for raising this topic. It is something that is important to many people. We will have to work together to see how we can progress it and ensure that fair play is available to all.