Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter which straddles a number of Departments. I am particularly interested in the area of employment rights. With the scrapping of the transition pension from January 2014, in effect the pension age is being standardised at 66. Even though we do not have any default age for pensions, many contracts of employment specify 65. Citizens Information states there is no single retirement age for employees, but that very much depends on the person's ability to sustain himself or herself.

The retirement age is usually set in a contract of employment. Some contracts have a mandatory retirement age and where there is a mandatory age it is usually 65. Recently the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled on a case in which a person was being forced to retire at 65. She was challenging it under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act because nothing in her contract stipulated that the age was 65. However, the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled against her on the basis that it was custom and practice in the company to retire at 65. From 1 January 2014 people who are required to retire at 65 on the basis of their contract will find there will be no transition arrangement until the age of 66, requiring them to apply for a jobseeker's payment. However, this infringes on their rights as employees because they are either being made redundant or let go and they will be required to apply for jobseeker's benefit. While they may have the requisite number of contributions, there is a difficulty with them being required to be available for work to get this payment, which is actually approximately €40 less than the transition payment.

Does this mean the people working in semi-State organisations will be able to work up to 66? Will there be a change in the redundancy arrangement so that somebody being let go at 65 will be able to apply for redundancy? If a person voluntarily leaves work will he or she be entitled to jobseeker's payment? Many anomalies are being thrown up here and while people are starting to ask questions about the changes to pension entitlements, there are knock-on effects on employment rights. Employment rights are the same as property rights or any other kinds of rights. I do not believe the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is picking up on that aspect of change that has been made in the Department of Social Protection.

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