John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ten months later we have a motion from the same Fianna Fáil Party calling for the same treatment that they refused to support in a motion tabled last year.

The Minister has stated that in every complex system there are winners and losers and that in this system there is an anomaly that disadvantages a very small number of people relative to the large number of pensioners we have. This is about fairness and equality for older people. It is not good enough to say there are winners and losers and that only a small number of people are affected. We are talking about in excess of 35,000 pensioners. These are people who went out to work and paid their contributions; why should they be blatantly discriminated against?

It is unfortunate that Fianna Fáil did not see it fit to support our motion on this matter last December, but Sinn Féin welcomes the motion, despite it being late in the day. This matter could have been dealt with ten months ago and it is very unfortunate that did not happen. We are seeking to amend the motion to include another cohort of people who have also been unfairly treated by the Government. In 2014 Fine Gael and the Labour Party abolished the State transition pension, leaving those who are forced to retire at 65 years by contract on a jobseeker's payment. We know that there are more 65-year-olds in receipt of jobseeker's payments than any other age category in the entire State. The people in question worked and paid into their pension scheme and now cannot access it. That is totally unfair and the matter needs to be addressed.

The longer these issues are allowed to continue, the more expensive it will become to rectify them because more people will see an impact.

It is not impossible to address these issues if the Government had the will to do so. Sinn Féin was able to do it in its alternative budget. Our measures were fully costed by the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It would cost €84 million to restore the State transition pension and €70 million to restore the pension bands and rates to their 2012 position.

The motion is little more than a PR stunt by Fianna Fáil - nothing more, nothing less. It has had ample opportunities to address these anomalies and time and again has chosen not to do so. The reversal of the 2012 changes is nowhere to be found in its so-called budget proposals either this year or last year.

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