Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Bríd Smith. I first want to make a point that is relevant to this motion and to a number of other motions passed by the Dáil in the past number of weeks. The Government is taking an extraordinarily cynical approach to motions brought forward by the Opposition in that it is supporting them, with no intention of doing anything about the issues raised. They are doing this because they do not want to see bad headlines in the media to the effect that they are against something. Tomorrow, the Government will vote in favour of the Social Democrats motion on the national maternity hospital. A few weeks ago, it voted in favour of the motion on the national maternity hospital brought forward by the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and others and in favour of the People Before Profit-Solidarity Bill on the right to housing, but it has no intention of doing any of what was proposed, in my opinion.

The Minister of State, Deputy English, said in his opening statement that the Government will vote in favour of the motion, which is very clear in terms of the pension age coming back to 65, but simultaneously he said something that entirely contradicts that, that is, the Government is in favour of the Pensions Commission continuing its work and does not want to interfere with the work of the commission, etc. The Pensions Commission is a tool to take something out of the political arena because of the pressure the establishment parties came under in the course of the last election. If the Government is in favour of the pension age coming back to 65, why not pass that into law? What the Government has been doing over the last while is incredibly cynical. It has copped onto the idea that voting against motions that are popular is a bad idea so instead it allows everything to pass with no intention of doing anything. That is extremely cynical.

The fundamental point is that instead of increasing the retirement age, which I believe is still what Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would like to do if they could get away with it politically, we should be bringing it back to, at least, 65. As a result of the Fine Gael and Labour Party decision to raise the age to 66, there are now 4,000 65-year-olds in this State out of work, unable to get the State pension and having to sign-on, effectively for jobseeker's allowance, and instead get €45 per week less than the pension. These are people who worked all of their lives, retired from their jobs at 65, and are now left to twist in the wind, unable to get a job, but not allowed to get the State pension. It is not good enough. The Government should hang its head in shame. This provision should be reversed immediately.

It says something deeply profound and bad about capitalism that people living longer is a crisis. We have a demographic timebomb. The idea that people could retire at 65 and live a comfortable retirement for a number of years is a crisis. These workers have been incredibly productive over the course of their lifetimes and they have created huge profits for their bosses, etc yet, it is unthinkable that we could make the employers and those who made the profits from their work pay for a comfortable retirement through increased employers PRSI.

Ireland is a wealthy country. Per person, we are the richest country in the world, but one would not think it looking at how the Government treats our older workers. Workers should be entitled to retire in comfort, but instead the Government is attempting, or would like to, push up the retirement age to 67 or 68. We can afford a decent retirement for all workers at 65 - a universal basic pension. The problem is Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are more concerned with protecting the billionaires from taxes than they are with supporting the workers who have created that wealth. Their pensions are part of their wages. They are deferred wages.

I welcome that Sinn Féin has brought forward this motion pushing to reduce the pension age to 65. However, I would make the point to Sinn Féin that it is the real attitude of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on this issue from which they should draw some conclusions. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are not on the side of ordinary workers, pensioners or otherwise. Any coalition or compromise with these parties of the rich would mean betraying those who were looking for real change. We do not need, and should have a ruling out of, coalition with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael and instead a fight for a left Government with socialist policies to stand up to the billionaires and bring down the pension age for workers.

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