Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In many respects, the Bill before the House is a vindication for those people who went to the bother of casting their votes in February. Many people were despondent at the refusal of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to recognise the huge mandate for change. One of the dominant issues of that election campaign, as we know now, was the stated, much vaunted and defended intention of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to increase the State pension age to 68. People rightly were angered by such a notion and they spoke with their feet and their votes. Those people who at the age of 65 were forced to retire but were then sent to their local social welfare offices recounted their tales on the national airwaves. Workers of all ages said this was not the future they wanted. They want to be able to retire with dignity, if it is their choice, at the age of 65.

The Bill is a vindication of all those people who let their voices be heard, primarily by voting for Sinn Féin candidates. The Government has accepted that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael got this drastically wrong. Bringing forward legislation that will suspend the proposed age increase to 67 on 1 January and a further increase to 68 is to be welcomed. Let us not play further games. The commission is a fudge. Let us forget about the fudges. People are sick to death of fudges in Irish politics. People want assurance. People who are approaching the pension age do not know, and have no certainty whatsoever, as to what circumstances they will be in when they hit 65, 66, 67 and 68 in the years to come. The Minister and Government should give them this assurance and tell them if they wish to retire at the age of 65, they will be entitled to the State pension. This is the least they deserve. For those people who break their backs working to build our economy, sustain our public services and ensure our communities remain vibrant places for us all to live and work, it is the least they deserve. We need to get back to the principle of fairness that goes to the heart of the State pension regime. I ask Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael representatives to stop being tone deaf. People do not want a commission. They want certainty. I do not think it is too much to ask.

I commend my party colleague, Deputy Kerrane, on the amendments she has tabled. It is clear there are issues with the pandemic unemployment payment, the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the more recent wage subsidy scheme and Sinn Féin has pointed them out. Some of these have been ironed out.

I welcome the Minister's assertion that the Government will support the Sinn Féin amendment to adjust the income threshold to €960 over an eight-week period rather than the original four-week period for those people who are in particularly vulnerable sectors, such as the music and events industry.

I support Deputy Kerrane's assertions on the JobPath scheme. It is an absolute scandal. We had this before the Committee of Public Accounts recently. We heard that €11,000 per job was the net output for a private company to provide JobPath. This is not good value for money. It is driven by an ideological agenda that is about privatising basic services and privatising roles that should be undertaken within the Department where there is proper accountability and where there should also be transparency.

If we are going to have a commission or a review on anything, let us look at how we have wasted hundreds of millions of euro of the Irish people's money on JobPath. This would warrant a commission, rather than a commission on an issue on which the Irish people have spoken so definitively in respect of the pension age.

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