Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputies Joan Collins and Fitzmaurice.

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I welcome the opportunity to speak on it and I have no problem supporting it. I welcome that the Minister has responded by saying that legislation will be introduced to abolish the pension age increase. However, her speech was somewhat contradictory and reflected some of the problems there are with how we look at pensions. As previous speakers noted, we have been looking at our ageing population as a challenge and a problem rather than a joy and an asset. There is no recognition in the Minister's speech of the amount of work done by my father and all the other fathers and mothers. They paid their taxes, for 50 or even 60 years in some cases, only to be faced with an increase in the age of pension eligibility.

There is a division built into the Minister's speech in the statement, "We want to maintain a fair balance between those who are contributing to the system and those who are drawing from it." If anything, that sentence captures the completely mistaken approach by this Government and every previous Government to pension provision. Pensions are a necessity and are based on solidarity within a civilised society and taking people out of poverty. For a very long time, we have benefited those who are richer by facilitating them in availing of tax reliefs and credits. The Green Party should be a major leader in moving to introduce a universal pension. Perhaps I am a little naive in asking for that, but I aspire to seeing a Green Party that is capable of leading and insisting that we treasure everyone including, in particular, our older people, because of their contribution to this State and what they did for us. I am standing here today because of my father and mother and the background from which I came. I am sure it is the same for all my colleagues. We should treasure our older people and stop this idiotic division that is reflected in the Minister's speech.

I welcome the establishment of a Commission on Pensions and the Minister's confirmation that at least six of its 11 members will be women. However, this does not mean that the commission's terms of reference will capture the problems with gender inequality in the area of pensions. In fact, gender equality comes in only as an afterthought. In the two-page document issued by the Department, I see seven terms of reference. The first one states that, where relevant, account will be taken of "socio-demographic characteristics". The sentence ends with the inclusion, in brackets, of the words "for example, gender". Nowhere in the terms of reference does it say that this commission will look at pension inequality on the basis of gender. That is very worrying.

In the short time remaining to me, I will provide a little background information. According to EUROSTAT, 9.9% of Ireland's population aged 65 and over are living in a dwelling with a leaking roof. That is 69,000 older people. Research by the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, TILDA, shows that 57.8% of people aged over 50 are living in substandard accommodation, with the most prevalent housing condition issues being those relating to damp, mould or moisture. It makes sense to have a universal pension payment and I wish it was included in the commission's terms of reference. As other speakers mentioned, people aged over 65 are a finite group. The ESRI tells us there are 65,000 people who have been completely excluded from any assistance. On the one hand, we are telling people to work until they drop at 68 and, on the other hand, when they do keep working, we make no provision for them.

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