Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

There are 19 measures in the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill, all of which will have very far-reaching effects on ordinary people, particularly working people. For some of us it looks like a menu to make ordinary working people work longer and harder for less over the course of their lifetimes, particularly hitting the least well off and manual workers who will be forced to work longer. To push all those measures through in such a short time without allowing adequate time for debate is a subversion of democratic debate in this House and this country.

In this regard, the Taoiseach should examine what is happening in Slovenia where there has been a referendum on the issue of raising the retirement age. The people of Slovenia were consulted in a proper referendum on this very serious measure and they voted 72% against raising the retirement age-----

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