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

I am opposing the proposal on the basis that when the same proposal to raise the pension age was proposed by the Slovenian Government the people of that country demanded a referendum, such was the seriousness of forcing people to work longer and harder for less. The people of Slovenia got their referendum on the matter and they said "No". The Government will not give us a referendum. It will not even give us a proper debate because it is cutting our time short and it appears as if democracy is being fundamentally undermined at the diktat of the IMF and the EU.

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