Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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To be clear on our position, as I said, I welcome the fact that we are having the conversation. I had introduced legislation, as I am sure Dr. O'Connor will be aware, which would have done exactly what he has referred to and would have been fair, or tried in some way to undo the grave unfairness that was done during the 2011-13 period, particularly to older workers and people who were facing this. I remember it at the time. I was a trade union official. I had a man aged 65 come in to see me and he could not fathom why he had to go down to what he referred to as the labour exchange to sign on the dole. A lot of things need to be undone to support workers as they approach their retirement.

I was very struck by the words of Age Action: "The level of control a person feels over their decision to retire is the key predictor of their post-retirement well-being". That is very powerful. Say, for example, someone is face having to go onto the dole. People know. They have been working all their life. They are not foolish. We can call it anything we like, but they know what the dole is and they know when they have to apply for it. That was a major contributory factor to workers really fearing retirement. There is a poverty element there as well. It is about having that choice that is essential and not having somebody say to you on the day before you get up, you go to work and you are fine and then, the day after, suddenly, bang, you cannot. There needs to be that level of flexibility brought in to give that choice. As regards that sentence, "The level of control a person feels over their decision to retire is the key predictor of their post-retirement well-being", is that the Retirement Planning Council's experience as well?