Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry for labouring the point but it needs to be laboured. In early 2021, the Minister told me, and it is on the record, that he hoped to have this statutory instrument signed by the third quarter of 2021. It is now the second quarter of 2022 and there is no sign of it being signed. I hope I do not have to explain to the Minister or to anybody else who has any sense of how workers survive and thrive after many years in a job what that increase would mean to them on a daily basis. I get regular inquiries from bus workers and train drivers as to when they will get their pension increase. I hope the Minister understand this.

As an aside, there should be a bit more urgency about how we deal with retired workers. I have made this point to the Minister of State, Deputy English, with regard to a Bill I have before the House. Many of these workers will die much younger than those of us who do white-collar work precisely because they do blue-collar manual work. Statistics show their life expectancy is not as high as that of other groups of workers. I plead with the Minister to deal with this with some urgency and give us reassurance that all of the payments will be backdated for those who have lost out so far.

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