Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

The point is that it is being discussed now and there has not been any real debate, because I have not heard much about it in the past 20 years. The Minister specifically stated that the debate began in earnest in 2008 under the last Government, under advice from those economists linked into the Celtic tiger idea and the trade unions linked into partnership. The debate started at a time when there was plenty employment. If it began at a time of plenty employment while there was still a serious problem financing our pensions, then this is not adequate on that basis. We should be extending the retirement age another five or six years, given the current state of the economy. If the Government, economists and trade union officials knew that we were facing into a devastating recession, then this is just about making people work longer and we will be coming back to this in five years because we will not have the resources to pay pensions again. There is a general feeling among people that we will not be out of this recession for at least ten or 15 years, so that is one reason I object to this measure. It should be taken out of the Bill.

If we had a society that was based on democratic socialism and on the idea of putting profits back into what is needed, our pensions could be retained. Instead, we are facing the outcome of this Bill. If the raising of the retirement age was not mandatory, then there would be a different debate in the Dáil. The fact that it is mandatory is the issue. I know plenty of people in my old job in An Post who have voluntarily stayed on longer or who came back to work, but the majority of men and women in An Post want to get out when they are 65 and earlier. We cannot have a "one size fits all" approach to this.

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