Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. It is useful.

I am conscious of what the Minister announced about the PRSI roadmap related to this. An awful lot of people would have been hoping for the restoration of the right to retire at 65 years as part of the roadmap. There is a payment, but it is less than the pension payment. Many people were hoping for this. Certainly, it was a major issue over the past couple of years. Many people who are on their feet all day working hard and who have 40-plus years of work done would expect to be in a position to retire at 65. People will be disappointed about that. It remains our position that people should have the right to retire at 65. Obviously, there are people who can work longer, which is welcome, but there are many who work in hard, physical jobs. They are very often the people least financially able to retire but physically they are in the most difficult position. I wanted to put that on record again. The Minister may respond if she wishes, but it is not so much a question as a comment.

There is a final point I wish to flag as I look at some of the lines in relation to invalidity, disability and partial capacity benefits. We sometimes come across cases of people who have been ill and subsequent to that illness, once they come off illness benefit, are probably in a position to do a bit of work. Because they have not previously been on invalidity benefit, partial capacity is not open to them and they do not qualify for any payments because their doctor believes that they might be capable of some minor element of work. They do not qualify for a disability benefit and they do not qualify for an invalidity allowance, but because they have not been on an invalidity benefit they do not qualify for the partial capacity benefit. That is something of an anomaly that we need to consider. It is not very frequent but we have come across cases like that. Perhaps the Minister will respond to those two pieces.