Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome and support the motion. A radical review of the whole system of pension provision is needed. One sees people who have worked and grafted hard for 50 years and who come out with €248 a week. In other sectors, workers are entitled to a pension after 30 years. We need to ensure we look after all our people and all sections of our communities. It is well known that the changes introduced in 2011 had a huge impact. Some of that was subsequently addressed by the previous Minister of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Senator Regina Doherty. What the former Minister, Joan Burton, did in 2011 was scandalous. A lot of people, including a lot of mothers, throughout the country were left with small pensions as a result. Some of that has been rectified but there are still problems in this regard.

My view is that people who want to keep working beyond 65 years of age should be allowed to do so. Nobody should ever be stopped from working. However, we need to look at the situation of workers in different sectors. In the case of plasterers and pipelayers, for example, their shoulders or hands are usually gone by the time they are 57 or 58, whereas people who are at lighter worker would not be as battered coming out of it. These are the facts of the matter. For blocklayers and tilers, their knees are gone and many of them are not fit to keep going until they are 70 years of age.

It is great if somebody can keep going. That person should be let continue. I have no problem with that.

It is absolutely scandalous, however, that over the last few months people who have borrowed money and kept businesses going, especially in the pub sector, were not given the PUP because they were of pension age. Some of these people were employing others in their communities. The Government should re-examine that for people in the private sector. People who have been working in the private sector all their lives have quite average pensions. We must examine that side of the issue to try to ensure there is balance and that people are treated well, regardless of whether they are in the private or public sector.

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