Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach referred earlier to the pension age in the North being increased to 66, which is certainly not a good thing. I would suggest that hiding behind that fact is not an excuse for not returning the pension age to 65. This is a point I have often made to the Taoiseach. Surely if we want to encourage people to be part of a united Ireland, we need to make being part of a united Ireland a more attractive option. It should be a better and different place for ordinary people and that is a good reason for us to restore the pension age to 65. In any event, raising the pension age was simply an austerity measure that was brought in during an economic crisis precipitated by bankers and developers, an emergency which has now passed. In France, the pension age is 62, while it is 65 in Belgium, 62 in Malta and 65 in Austria. There is simply no justification for raising the pension age. We should restore it to 65 in the interests of fairness for working people.

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