Dr. Nat O'Connor:

On the gender pay gap, a recent report published by the ESRI found a 35% pension gap between the incomes of women and men in retirement. That would certainly help explain why more women in this survey might be willing to work longer - because of that gap. However, according to the statistics for those aged 66 and older who are at work, they are disproportionately men. I think it is three to one men. It tends to be people in self-employment, farmers and other professions where it tends to be men. At the same time, however, women over the age of 66 are very disproportionately involved in unpaid care work, for which they do not get any further credits towards a State pension. There are different gender effects happening there.

The other issue I will point out as regards this legislation is that it provides for a marginal improvement. In 2006, when the OECD looked at this situation, Ireland was the only country that did not regulate private contracts in respect of mandatory retirement, and that remains the case. Other countries have a minimum age that can be allowed in private contracts. What the Bill before the committee will do is essentially move it from 65 years to 66, which would be an improvement because it would align with the State pension but not a great improvement. As my colleague Ms Murphy said, there are loopholes in the law that would allow an employer to still let an employee go at 65, and it is onerous on the worker to have to write in. We are therefore not greatly in favour of this law. We would like to see a much stronger law that will ban mandatory retirement, to be clear on that.