Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

While I welcome the fact that at last the Government is acting upon the recommendations of the Commission on Pensions, which it established, and is introducing legislation to prohibit employers setting a mandatory retirement age for workers, I am calling on the Government to reduce the age at which citizens can access their State pension to 65 years old. People have not forgotten that this was abolished by the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government in 2013. It is my belief that Fine Gael may have its sights on even higher age limits in the future. We all know it planned on raising it to 68 by 2028. What a horrendous thought that would be for people in manual jobs, in particular. I am thinking of carpenters and brickies, service staff in hotels making heavy beds, the hairdressers on their feet all day and the kitchen staff.

Unfortunately, this current Government has set its face against lowering the age to 65, which is a longstanding Sinn Féin policy. What the Government is doing with this legislation is in line with what Sinn Féin has long proposed. My colleagues, Deputies Louise O’Reilly and Claire Kerrane, introduced legislation which would have had the same effect in the last Dáil. It is the legislation which will bring to an end the approximately 4,000 people being forced out of their jobs each year, not because they want to retire, have to for ill-health or for any other reason but simply because it states in their contract that they must retire. This legislation will hopefully end the cliff-edge fall off in income and the indignity suffered by workers who have been forced to sign on to the dole for one year until they can access their State pension. It will also enable workers to continue to enjoy the social aspect of working until they can access their pension. This will help ensure that workers do not experience isolation and poor mental health brought on by loneliness. All this is to be welcomed. Indeed, it is long after time for its introduction.

While Sinn Féin will not stand in the way of this legislation, we fundamentally believe that at the age of 65, a worker should have the choice to continue to work if he or she so chooses, or to retire and access their State pension. If we cast our minds back to the 2020 election, this was one of the pivotal topics. People then wanted the option to retire at 65 and I believe people still want that option now.

The programme for Government in 2020 established the Commission on Pensions in an effort to kick this issue down the road. The truth is that the Government squandered two entire Dáil terms and did nothing to stop employers forcing workers into retirement. It must be emphasised that the report of the Commission on Pensions recognises that, in the case of people who work in certain occupations, like hairdressers and those working in construction and retail, by the time they hit 65, they feel they have done their shift. Many do not want, nor should be compelled, to work past the age of 65. While that is contained within the report of the Commission on Pensions, the Government ignores it. The elephant in the room is the fact that the pension age still needs to be reduced. Sinn Féin would do this. It can be done. Deputy Louise O'Reilly, who will speak next, tabled a motion in this House in 2021, which would have done that. At the age of 65, people have a lifetime of work under their belts and they should be able to access their State pension.

The pension age ranges across Europe. In Estonia, it is 64 years and three months; in France, it is 62 years; in Slovakia, it is 63 years; in Bulgaria, it is 62 years for women and 64 years and six months for men; and in Austria and Poland, women can retire at the age of 60. Many other countries have flexible arrangements. Many of these countries do not have the economic prosperity which the Government so often boasts about. What is prosperity in a State if it is not used for the betterment of its citizens? I am taking this opportunity to call on the Government to enact this legislation but not to shirk its responsibility in respect of older workers and to lower the age at which people can access their State pension to 65.

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