Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have heard a lot of talk in here and, to be honest, a lot of guff as well. The Deputies on the Government benches should be entirely ashamed of themselves. Workers watch what goes on in here. They see the pathetic attempts by the Minister and her pal on the backbenches to deflect and avoid talking about the fact that this means €45.40 a week to workers. That might not mean an awful lot to the Minister. It probably does not. It is probably just pin money to her, but not to people who have worked all their lives in low-income jobs, for whom she has precious little understanding. The Minister said she was a working woman, but as my colleague, Deputy Clarke, pointed out, the decision to increase the pension age and tell people to go on the dole at the age of 65 comes from people who sit at a desk. Builders, plasterers, waitresses, barmen and anyone else who has worked hard doing manual, physical labour deserve the right to retire at 65. They have damn well earned it. They have worked harder probably than any person in here. Sometimes there is a little bit of a gap in the Government's understanding of what is going on in real life.

I spoke to a builder in Balbriggan who is 64 years of age. He told me he had worked all his life and he was tired. The man could not face the thought of working to 67. He is retired now. I say he is retired but the Minister says he is on the dole. She can call it anything she likes, including an administrative arrangement or whatever the hell else she wants to call it, but that man is on the dole. This year, he will get €2,355.50 less than he would have got if he had the pension that he has earned. That is the disconnect. That is why the voice of the working people is missing at the Cabinet table. That is why we have to come in here and listen to the people on the Government benches deflect, try to change the subject and talk about something else. They talk about a place that until recently they thought was overseas. That is what is going on here. Workers see what is going on and they know who is on their side. They know who will stand up for them. Workers know that they deserve the right to retire at 65 and they know that the only party that is committed to delivering that is Sinn Féin and that only Sinn Féin in government will deliver for those workers who have worked tirelessly all of their lives.

When I worked in a trade union I presented a man with a 50-year pin. It is very rare for someone to have 50 years continuous union membership. He had started work at the age of 15 and at the age of 65 I presented him with his pin. He was told he had to go down to the labour exchange and sign on for the dole. He had never been there before. He had worked and paid tax and PRSI all of this life, and at the end of his working life, having worked hard, he was told to go on the dole.

The Minister stated that these people would not be made to look for work. They are still only getting the dole, which is what the Government does not understand. It is the dole by another name and only a Government that is massively out of touch with what goes on in the lives of working people would suggest something as ridiculous as that. This is the dole. It is 50 years of work and then there is the dole queue. These people have earned the right to retire at 65. They have worked hard and paid their tax and PRSI. I can give this commitment because if I had the opportunity to sit on the Government benches or if I were a Minister in the next Government, I would damn well ensure that people have the right to retire at 65 and access the State pension they have worked hard for and in respect of which they have paid contributions. That is no less than those people deserve.

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