Mr. Liam Berney:

I agree with the Deputy. To be clear, both SIPTU and Congress do not agree with an increase in the pension age. We are on the record and our submissions to the commission reflect that. Both in our submissions to the commission and also in the meeting that was held with the commission and with stakeholders, we made very substantial points around the issues that the Deputy is highlighting about arduous work. To some extent, the commission has acknowledged that but whether it has done enough to recognise the problem that Deputy Ó Cuív is identifying is an open question. Like SIPTU, we will try to see within our own organisation whether we can help the Deputy in what he is trying to do and supply it to him. He is right. There is a range of occupations across the country where it is unthinkable that people would be asked to work well into their 60s. While in a previous contribution I referenced the use in other jurisdictions of classifications of occupations, I am not saying that is an approach that Congress supports and I was just using it by way of an example of what is used in other jurisdictions. As Mr. Taft has pointed out, in a factory it could be that different types of classifications have different experiences, so it would be a very difficult approach to take. I was merely pointing to it as an approach that has been taken in other jurisdictions. We will try to identify if we have within our own organisation any information that would support or help the Deputy in the analysis he is trying to undertake.