Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin Members for tabling the motion which we in the Social Democrats will be supporting. As we start to emerge from the pandemic many of us have been forced to re-evaluate what is important in our individual lives and in wider society - family, health and friendship.

It might seem simplistic but we need to keep these learnings close to us. At the same time, we need to ensure flexibility and an assortment of values are represented. The value and meaning one derives from work cannot be thought of as universal. Some of us, I hope all of us here, derive immense pleasure from our work and find meaning in our lives through our work. Others work to be able to sustain their other passions and hobbies and for some their work is measured through care which has historically been undervalued and ignored.

It should not be a utopian idea to have better work-life balance through a four-day working week, flexible working-from-home options, a society which values life spent outside labour participation as much as in it and a society where it should be a privilege, not a stress, to grow old, where the frenzy relating to security no longer haunts our elderly population. Allowing our elderly to retire with dignity is the purpose of a pension system. The State pension is and must remain the most important pillar in achieving that.

Older people in Ireland have the lowest rates of poverty of any age group. The State pension is solely responsible for this. At any one time, approximately 85% of older people in Ireland would live below the poverty line if it were not for the State pension. Instead, that number is generally between 9% and 11% and has been so for the last decade. For this reason, the Social Democrats believe the Government’s priority on pensions should be to end the auction politics on pensions, by linking the State pension to 35% of the average wage.

There is also a need to align the retirement age with the pension age and adjust employment contracts accordingly. The Government should also look to introduce a system where people have the flexibility to receive the State pension earlier or later than the State pension age.

This should be about choice. People should have a choice as to when to leave the workforce, confident they will not be punished for the choice they make as the pension amount they receive would be reduced or increased on a cost neutral basis.

There are regular contributions to the discussion on pensions from the commentariat and members of the Government, all referencing the sustainability of the pension system and the fact that people are living longer. Successive Governments have done little to encourage or support longer working lives among people who want to work beyond the retirement age. There is rarely justification for mandatory retirement except, perhaps, in some very select professions and there is no justification for it when the Government is simultaneously talking about a pensions timebomb and insisting that we cannot allow our retirees the financial security they have earned.

The Social Democrats support this motion. If the Government acted on it, it would be doing something real to support workers on their own terms, supporting those who wish to have longer working lives. There is also a need to expand coverage to groups not covered by pension arrangements. We know of the contribution that care work makes. People, mostly women, who perform care work save the Irish economy, by some estimates, €20 billion per annum, be that by raising families or caring for elderly family members or family members with disabilities. They are literally saving the State billions per year, not to mention meeting a tsunami of need that cannot be met by our healthcare system, yet we continue to insult these individuals and the value of their work by providing no security.

A few weeks ago, I said in this Chamber that there is no greater injustice than someone spending decades caring for family members with disabilities facing a retirement of financial insecurity. This is the reality faced by many long-term caregivers. Thanks to anomalies in our antiquated breadwinner pension system they have no entitlement to a pension from the State when they retire. Nobody is more deserving of the admiration and support of our society than those who spend years, sometimes decades, in these caring roles. Aside from the social value provided, they save the economy billions of euros annually - a point that cannot be overstated.

The Pensions Commission is due to report to the Government at the end of this month. Included in its remit is the creation of a pension solution for carers. I sincerely hope that solution is one that ends the situation where understandable gaps in PRSI history or quirks in the means test often leave carers without any pension entitlement. The Government should begin to treat credited PRSI contributions the same as paid contributions as treating paid and credited contributions differently tells carers that society does not value their work as much as it values paid employment. That attitude is an anachronism in 2021. Public policy needs to reflect more modern thinking about what counts as valuable work in our society.

Family Carers Ireland hears from many carers every year who have no individual entitlement to a pension from the State. If they are lucky, they will qualify for some income through a spouse, but if married to a civil servant who was hired under the old pension regime or to a farmer who has land, even if that land has not been worked, they are usually left with nothing. A commitment from Government to the development of a dedicated long-term carers' pension scheme is the best way it can prove its support for carers. This scheme should target people who have delivered full-time care for more than 20 years regardless of their PRSI history and should pay a pension equal to the maximum contributory pension, which is currently €248.30 per week. In addition, there should be no means test.

There is no excuse for continuing to allow these anomalies in our pension system to fester, resulting in great financial uncertainty and instability into older life because of care work. I am reminded of the words of C.S. Lewis, "You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."

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