John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 14, between lines 14 and 15, to insert the following:

“Report on appropriate State pension age

20.The Minister shall conduct research, including international comparative research, engage in public consultation and make recommendations and report on all aspects of the most appropriate age at which a person should become entitled to receive the State pension and that the report shall be presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection within 6 months of the enactment of this Act.”.

This amendment again seeks that a report be compiled, in this case on the appropriate State pension age. The matter has been the subject of a degree of focus and the Minister will be aware I introduced legislation in respect of it. In advance of the changes being made, there was no consultation or meaningful debate in this institution, while there was little debate outside it. The UK is the only other country examining increasing the pension age to 68 but it will not make the change until 2046, 18 years after Ireland. We will increase our pension age to 67 in 2021 and further in 2028. All the evidence shows that Ireland has nearly 30% fewer older people than other European countries. Nevertheless, we are pushing ahead faster and further than all our EU counterparts.

In 50 years, Ireland will still have the lowest number of older people, with nearly 20% fewer than other EU countries. We have always been given the rationale that the State pension age has to increase, while some use the terrible phrase of the ticking time bomb and so on. The evidence clearly shows that is not factual. We are nowhere near our European counterparts, yet we are pushing ahead faster and further than them. In 2017, the committee published a report with cross-party consensus that indicated that further increases in the pension age had to be suspended. The committee agreed to that, although I am not sure whether the Minister was aware. It is an anomaly that someone who has to retire at 65 years old will sign on for jobseeker's allowance. That is not acceptable. If we increase the age in 2021, will we tell people who retire that they will have to sign on for two years before they can receive their State pensions? It is an unfair anomaly and a report would be useful in this regard.