Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate. I heard the Deputy very clearly when he spoke about those over 50, 45% of whom felt discriminated against. A worse statistic was the 87% of respondents in one of the reports the Deputy cited who were looking for work. The Deputy mentioned the word "covert" and I have heard about it myself. We need as a society to recognise the valuable contribution our mature students and citizens have and their depth of experience. In January 2016, the Government agreed to the establishment of a working group to consider policy around the retirement age. The establishment of the group came in light of the fact that people are now living longer, more active and healthier lives. Ireland should be a society which explores the opportunities associated with longer and fuller working lives. To that end, a shift in cultural norms around the retirement age is needed on all sides. In a positive ageing environment, workers should be facilitated to the greatest extent possible with the option to work beyond normal retirement age. The report recognises the fact that appropriate training and other supports for older workers may be needed to enable them to remain active participants in the labour market. The State, employers and workers themselves have responsibilities in this area. The group has identified a set of framework principles and made a set of recommendations. As a follow-on to this work, my Department has asked the Workplace Relations Commission to prepare that draft code of practice to which I referred.

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