David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her helpful response. On the first issue she raised, we will take it up with the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. There might be an appropriate way to raise it in legislation he will bring before the House on other issues.

On the issue of pensions and jobseeker's benefit, my difficulty is in regard to low paid workers, who tend to be blue collar workers and people who do more physical work. While I accept the Minister's point in regard to looking at contracts, I do not want to again get into the whole debate about increasing the pensions age. However, there is an issue in that very physical manual work takes a toll on a person's body, and to force such workers to work longer to 66 and perhaps even up to 68, if that is where we eventually go, is not really where we should be going. I see it as a matter of choice, not something we force people to do. Whatever we need to do in regard to changing the law on contracts, there are people whose current contracts will finish at 65. It is unreasonable to expect those people to go onto jobseeker's benefit at that point in their lives. It is my view that they should get the pension, although that is another issue. I thank the Minister for her clarification on both of the issues.