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

I welcome the opportunity to speak at the conclusion of this important debate. I thank all of the Deputies for their contributions this evening. I want to draw the Minister of State's attention to the fact that there is no representative from the NWCI on the Pensions Commission. There are named representatives on the Pension Commission. There is one representative from the ICTU and one from IBEC, but there are no specific representatives from the NWCI that I can see. I just checked it before I rose to speak. It is an important clarification to make, because as we know, women are impacted disproportionately by the pension situation.

I would not call it a "crisis". Although the Minister of State is right to reference the fact that Governments across the globe have to deal with the issue of pensions, it would be most helpful if the somewhat hysterical language were taken out of the debate. We are not facing a demographic time bomb. It is a good thing that people are living longer. We do not have a pension crisis or anything like it. In fact, what we have is an opportunity to look at the economy and how it is structured. We have an opportunity to look at low pay, precarious work and the way the Government has built and constructed the labour market. It provides an opportunity for growth, which is very important. It is important that we grasp the opportunity to fund our pensions through growth. By growth, I mean the growth of decent jobs and the elimination of precarious work. Decent well-paid jobs afford us an opportunity to grow and to ensure we put pensions onto a sustainable footing. That is important. It is an important lesson for the Government to take on board.

The Government must not demonise people who have worked all their lives and want to retire when they get to the age of 65. In fact, we should thank those people for doing their shift by offering them the opportunity to access the pension rate of pay when they get to the age of 65. That is what Sinn Féin believes. We know it is what workers want. Workers are not foolish. They do not seek out things that will cause the economy to crash. Indeed, I am sure the speakers from Fianna Fáil and the Green Party know well how to crash an economy. That is not what workers want. Workers want to know that the pensions they paid into will be available to them when they reach the age of 65. That is what this motion seeks to deliver. It seeks to facilitate workers accessing the pension rate of pay at the age of 65. It seeks to abolish mandatory retirement where that retirement is mandated within a person's contract and it seeks to allow workers to continue working on the same terms and conditions. Like other speakers, I was alarmed by the IBEC submission to the Pensions Commission that referenced the potential use of fixed-term or altered contracts. In actual fact, what we are looking for is an extension of a contract to facilitate a person to work on past the age of 65, and indeed, when they reach the age of 65 to have the ability to exercise choice. There is a lot of dignity in having a choice. For many Deputies, particularly on the Government side of the House, there is very little understanding of the options that are available to people.

Sinn Féin believes that people should have the right to access their pension rate of pay at the age of 65.

Much like the Minister of State in his speech, from an adequacy point of view, the Irish State pension is excellent at protecting pensioners from poverty. However, we believe that, at the age of 65, one should have access to that rate of pay. It is not the label that is put on it, or not calling it a pension, that is a factor in the alleviation of poverty. It is the rate one gets. Currently, the thousands of workers who hit 65 since the Government came in almost a year ago are on the jobseeker's rate, not on the pension rate. The Minister of State was right when he said, from an adequacy point of view, the Irish State pension is excellent at protecting pensioners from poverty. We are saying that they should be allowed to access that pension at the age of 65 when their shift is done and their work is completed.

I am not sure there is a massive understanding on the Government side of the House that when people do backbreaking work, such as waiting tables, laying blocks and working outdoors in all weathers, they are ready to retire when they hit the age of 65. Sinn Féin is saying to those people that we believe they should be able to access the pension rate of pay and have the dignity to choose. If they want to work on, they should be able to retain their terms and conditions of employment. If they want to retire, they should be allowed to do so and access the pension rate of pay.

There is almost unanimity, which is quite unusual, on this issue across the board. The Government said it will not oppose the Sinn Féin motion. I believe that is a little bit disingenuous, however. Not opposing something is not the same as supporting it. The workers watching this debate this evening, particularly anyone in the age bracket of 60 to 64, will want to hear what the Government is thinking, regardless of what commissions, reports or other mechanisms it has used to sideline this issue. On our part in Sinn Féin, we will ensure we keep this issue front and centre. We will ensure we make good on the commitments we gave to people on the doorsteps in 2020. Thanks to people like the STOP67 campaign, they have put this issue on the agenda for those parties that needed it.

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