David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Choice is a word which is front and centre in Irish politics at the moment, in terms of the forthcoming budget decisions and also the motion being discussed in the Lower House this evening. This legislation also relates to choice and I wish to lay out the Sinn Féin position clearly, lest Government Ministers or parties misrepresent or misunderstand it. I will set out our position so that there is absolute clarity about it and no misunderstanding whatsoever.

I welcome the debate that is happening as a consequence of this Bill and I commend Senator White for introducing it. Equality must be enshrined in our employment laws and that includes outlawing discrimination against older workers. There are a number of issues that require further examination, however. Older workers, like all workers, need protection and in no way should we tolerate the exploitation of older workers, including pressurising them to work beyond the accepted retirement age. Workers who decide to work beyond the normal pension age should do so entirely voluntarily. That is where the issue of choice comes in. Some professions are more physically demanding than others and this should be taken into account. Workers doing any job must be physically capable. There is also a danger that by allowing some workers to work longer, the pension system becomes more skewed and other workers find themselves under pressure to worker longer to maintain the status quo vis-à-vis their pension rights, which would not be a tolerable position. Provided those issues can be resolved through proper maintenance and crucially, the provision of a sound pension scheme, there can be no objection to workers who choose to do so working beyond the normal retirement age, as a point of equality.

However, it is unacceptable to Sinn Féin to see an increase in the age eligibility for the State pension. This is due to rise to 66 in 2014 under the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill 2012 and to rise further, incrementally, over time. Workers who have put in the best part of a lifetime at work will find themselves having to work a year more than planned to receive a pension, which is unfair. Workers struggled long and hard to get what rights they have and they should resist attempts to backtrack on those rights. In addition, in raising the pension age to 66, this Government is potentially freezing out up to 10,000 young people from the labour market, at a time when youth unemployment is running at 30%. This makes no sense. The right to a pension has been a long-standing Irish Republican principle and even the Minister can claim it as part of his roots because it goes back to the Democratic Programme of 1919. That promised to provide for "the care of the Nation's aged and infirm, who shall not be regarded as a burden, but rather entitled to the Nation's gratitude and consideration.".

The change to the State pension age will have a worse effect on low-income people who have no occupational or private pensions or savings and who will have no choice but to continue working until a later age. Wealthier people will still have the option to retire on their own private savings or pensions. Lower income workers tend to be in more manual or blue-collar employment as we know, which takes a greater toll on the body, particularly in later life. Some people's contracts are scheduled to conclude at the age of 65 but it is madness to expect these people to go on jobseeker's benefit at that stage in their lives. That will happen and every politician will be lobbied on this issue when it happens. Forcing older people to remain in employment means that there will be fewer jobs for young people and for those who are forced to emigrate. It is not possible to make 50 year predictions on the ratio of pensioners to workers in terms of the State pension affordability. There are simply too many volatile factors to consider, including levels of employment, migration, birth trends and economic growth. The change to the pension eligibility age is utterly opposed by lobby groups for the elderly such as the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament, Older and Bolder, Age Action and also by trade unions, most notably, SIPTU. According to the document "Measured or Missed? Poverty and Deprivation among Older People in a Changing Ireland" published by Older and Bolder in October last year, 84% of older people, aged 65 to 74, are in relative poverty before social transfers, that is, the State pension and associated benefits, are factored in.

I reiterate - so there is no misunderstanding of my party's position - that we are not in favour of increasing the retirement age from 65 to 66 or higher because it is not just but in situations where people do want to work longer and their decision is entirely voluntary, then of course that option should be open to them.