Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with my colleagues. I too am delighted that the Minister has stayed in the Chamber to listen to Deputies. My delight was premature. Tá sí ag dul amach anois. Cén fáth? I will tell all of my in-laws in Monaghan and Cavan that she ran away when I stood up to speak. I am glad she stayed for most of the debate anyway. It is a pity when Ministers do not do so.

I fully support the motion. We need certainty around this issue. The Taoiseach can mutter in the Dáil that Fianna Fáil and the Government is doing this or that but we need certainty because people are worried about this issue. The current pension age has to stay. We cannot have people working until they are unfit to work and unable to work.

During the pandemic, the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, has been denied to pensioners. Pensioners in that gap between the ages of 66 and 70 may drive taxis or buses, do school runs for their grandchildren, run pubs, play in showbands, work as bookmakers such as mobile bookmakers who go to shows, drive a truck or do a plethora of other things, but they cannot get a shilling. All they wanted was parity of esteem and to get the difference between their pension and what everybody else was getting. Even people who only worked seven or eight hours a week were getting it. It was totally unfair and discriminatory to pensioners.

I wish to mention community employment, CE, scheme supervisors. They run every operation in every community council. They are the go-to people for everything in parishes, the sports scene and communities. They are entitled to a pension. Some of them worked for 20 or 30 years but have gone off without a pension. They have no certainty. That must be sorted out for those people.

One cannot expect local authority employees, other public servants or anyone else who is forced to retire at 65 to have to go and sign on for 15 months. I heard a Deputy stating earlier that they do not have to do so. They do have to go and sign on. It is humiliating and degrading to send those people into that kind of situation when they wanted to work all their lives, did work all their lives and would continue to work if they were allowed to do so, rather than having to sign on at the labour exchange like the unfortunate people who cannot get work. These people are proud and they want to keep their pride and dignity. Fine Gael does not have a good record of looking after people like that.

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