Ms Naomi Feely:

A number of very interesting cases have come to us in our work. Previous to the introduction of Deputy Brady's Bill, Anne Ferris, a Member of the previous Dáil, also introduced a Bill on this matter. There was a very good committee discussion with people who had been impacted by the situation. I remember hearing at the launch of the report individuals - Deputies and Senators - saying they were very much struck by the powerful nature of the contributions that day. In addition, through our lifelong learning work, we have a very good group in Dún Laoghaire, and the individual charged with setting that up wrote a brilliant blog on our website about the issue of mandatory retirement, describing how on a Friday he was in work running an embassy office in Finland, on the Saturday he was packing up his boxes to leave and, on the Monday, he came home. It very much captures the lived impact of the situation. As for Age Action's work, we strongly rely on the lived impact of policies in trying to get our message across and in examining recommendations to Government surrounding these issues.