Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Broughan queried the existing Taoiseach about this issue - I understand that the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, is possibly the future Taoiseach - but the current Taoiseach answered by saying that some people did suffer badly under the austerity measures and that we would hope to give them some alleviation in the future. It is my argument that this is pure, out-and-out discrimination on two grounds: gender and age.

This Government is guilty on both counts of discriminating through this pension scheme. To me, it seems quite a simple question that a leader like the current Taoiseach or the Minister, as a possible future Taoiseach, needs to grab by the throat and deal with. The Minister and the Government are breaking the equality legislation. They are the law breakers, not the pensioners who are being discriminated against.

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