Dáil debates

Thursday, 31 March 2022

Employment Equality (Abolition of Mandatory Retirement Age) Bill 2022: First Stage

 

1:10 pm

Photo of Claire KerraneClaire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to introduce this Bill with my colleague. This legislation has passed Second Stage in this House unanimously twice. It was passed in the previous Dáil and the one before that, but here we are again. Despite obvious support in this House and among the public for a long time, nothing has been done to make this happen. This is about giving workers a choice when it comes to retirement. For far too long, employment contracts have stipulated that workers must retire at the age of 65 and that they are no longer able to do their job at that age. That is rubbish and has been since it was introduced. It remains in many cases.

This issue was made worse when the State pension transition payment was abolished by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in 2014. Workers who were forced to retire were put onto a jobseeker's payment. I will always remember being contacted during that time by a 65-year-old who needed help putting together her curriculum vitae. She had worked for 40 years. It was a stipulation for receiving the jobseeker's payment that she sought alternative work. That is the position that many workers were put in at that time, after paying their wages, taxes and working hard for many years. This was an incredible insult to older people.

It has been an issue for a long time. Despite a name change from a jobseeker's payment to a benefit payment at 65, and while I acknowledge that the requirements for the jobseeker's payment have been removed, it is not right that those retiring at 65 cannot access the State pension. It is not right that they have no choice and that just because they turn 65, they are asked to leave their jobs. That element of choice is important. Workers should have a choice between retiring and working on. I hope that this House will not just support the idea of the abolition of mandatory retirement, but that it will actually act to make it happen. Many workers want to work on. In some cases, they are well able and willing to, sometimes for financial reasons and other times just for social reasons. It is important and I hope that, once and for all, it can actually happen.

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