Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not disagree with anything the Minister of State said but he has not addressed the issue I raised. I said that there was a need for a plan to be devised to deal with this anomaly. The Minister of State knows from his own background that people have contractual arrangements whereby they are required to retire at 65. The State is abolishing the State pension transition so people are being left high and dry between the ages of 65 and 66. Does the Minister of State believe it is fair that the State turns its back on people when they are forced to retire at the age of 65 who may have worked their entire life from 16 or 17 years of age, may have an unbroken work record of 48 or 49 years and paid into the social insurance fund for all of those years? Does he believe this situation should arise because it will arise for about 2,000 people and increasing numbers from next January? I am asking him to give an assurance today that the Departments of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Social Protection will devise a plan to deal with this very unfair anomaly which will arise next January.

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