Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In Ireland today, people are living longer and have more years of healthy active living than previous generations enjoyed. Today, a woman, when she reaches the age of 65, has an average life expectancy of a further 20 years while a man can anticipate 17 additional years of life.

We have an ever-growing number of older people in our midst. They are projected to double in number from 500,000 today to 1 million in less than 20 years. It is simply wrong that people who are productive, working, contributing to society, paying tax, are healthy and want to keep working should be compelled to retire.

Compulsory retirement based on age is discrimination. Unless there are convincing reasons, such as health and safety concerns, workers should have the right to choose when they retire. When Canada ended mandatory retirement last year, its human rights commission pointed out, "We're not born with date stamps saying our fitness for work expires at 65." We agree and that is why we are moving this Bill today.

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