Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to speak on this motion. It is important that we debate pensions as it is one of the fundamental structural issues of our time. It would be a better debate if it was based only on facts because otherwise it does a massive disservice to people on pensions, people expecting to get pensions soon and those working to fund the pensions of today in the hope of receiving a pension later. I am particularly concerned about women who have taken time out of work to raise children and who have been penalised for having done so. The Commission on Pensions is due to examine that as a matter of priority.

The motion tabled by Sinn Féin is purely political. It would have people believe that if Sinn Féin was in government it would reduce the pension age and reinstate a right to retire at 65 years, a right that never existed. It is not a vision about how pensions are to be funded over time or how workers of today are to pay for them or to get one. Of course, what Sinn Féin does in Northern Ireland is completely different.

In Ireland, the pension age is 66 years and the contributory State pension is over €248 per week. In Northern Ireland, the pension age is 66 years, but the pension is considerably lower at only €195 per week. In Ireland, we must consider the pension age increasing over time to ensure today's workers will get a pension in the future. It is dishonest to suggest otherwise. In Northern Ireland, the same change is being made. Presumably, Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland recognises the same risk of the pension age remaining at 66 years for the young people today. It is not a risk to those in receipt of the pension today or about to get the pension, but it is to the younger workers who are funding pensions and hope and expect to have a pension of their own.

The new law agreed by Sinn Féin in 2012 explicitly states it is a change to increase the pensionable age for men and women progressively. Age Northern Ireland and the Age Action NGO comment on the state pension in the same way:

There are more changes planned. From 2019, the age will increase for both men and women to reach 66 by October 2020.

The Government is planning further increases, which will raise the State Pension age from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028.

The State Pension age is going to be kept under review, which means that it could change again in the future, depending on different factors, such as changes in life expectancy.

Indeed, we know it is planned to go up to 68 years in the years beyond that. The next increase in the pension entitlement age in Northern Ireland is scheduled to come into effect in 2026. It will go up again, and I can go through it all, month by excruciating month. That is the law in Northern Ireland as agreed by Sinn Féin there.

In the Republic, Deputy O'Reilly and her colleagues argue it should be 65 years even though in Northern Ireland, where Sinn Féin is in government, it is 66 years. The party will put out videos, press releases and so forth stating that if the Deputy is a Minister in the next Government, she will restore the right to retire on a pension at 65 years, notwithstanding that this is not the case where Sinn Féin is in government and that no such right ever existed in this State. The pension age was never 65 years. There is no mandatory retirement age. It was always a function of employment contracts, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, has asked the Commission on Pensions to examine it.

Given the difference of €53 per week between the pension in Northern Ireland and here, I would prefer to be under the arrangements of this House. There are other benefits here that, again, are unmatched by Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland. There are significant differences in the supplementary benefits for pensioners in Ireland and Northern Ireland related to energy costs. The household benefits package here is completely different from that in Northern Ireland. There is a different arrangement in respect of important supports such as television licences and a different structure for fuel allowances and cold weather payments.

In Northern Ireland, one can get a cold weather payment of £25 per week from when there is very cold weather. It is payable when the temperature is or is forecast to be 0⁰C or below for seven consecutive days, as defined by the Met Office. Since the start of the 2020 to 2021 season, no cold weather payments have been made. It has not been a very cold year so far, although I saw a worrying forecast on the news this evening. Regardless, I would not like to be planning my winter heating on that basis and I expect that pensioners in Northern Ireland who depend on it do not like it either. Where would one prefer to be? Would one prefer to be on a higher pension here or with milk and honey in Northern Ireland where one can get a cold weather payment after seven days of freezing weather?

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