Ms Mary Murphy:

On the point about older persons forced to remain in employment, we want to reiterate we are also concerned about that, while recognising what Ms O’Brien said, which is that some older persons want to remain in work, and more power to them. The system should be in place for that to happen. However it is important to protect adequate State income in older age, by which I mean the pension. On that point, I want to raise something that came up in Deputy Canney’s contribution about the cost of disability. Funnily enough this disappears when it comes to older persons despite the fact that older persons are proportionally disabled, compared with the younger population. However the cost of disability is not acknowledged as a cost that they bear. It is much more about the working population. Many of the disability payments are compensation for people of “working age” who are missing out on work because of their disability. Therefore they get paid. That is what the payments are targeted at. Hence we see such things as the €500 payment for disability in budget 2023. Older people with disabilities did not get that because they do not get disability payments. Once you hit the age of 66 you lose your disability payments and go on the State pension. Beyond the difficulties that creates, the message it sends is problematic as well. It is this idea that “well now you are 66 you are not disabled any more, you are just old” and the disability is subsumed into that part of your identity. That is a concern for us when it comes to disability. It reinforces our desire for there to be a cost of age study.