Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senators Crown, Barrett and Power for this Bill. I welcome the Minister to the House. The situation referred to by Senator Moloney sounds like double punishment to me; marriage and then lack of a pension. I support the Longer Healthy Living Bill 2015. It seems nonsensical to have public servants in the areas of law and politics, and in other areas, who can work until they are asleep. In my time within the legal service I have experienced judges who were God knows what age - I would not mention any names and it does not mean to say that they would not read the transcripts that night - but I have often been in court where there is a very elderly judge who could be 80 years of age or beyond. Why should we have a situation where health care workers who are perfectly capable of doing their job are not in a position to stay on in that job?

There are people who would much rather retire, the earlier the better, and they may retire if they wish. The Bill proposes to address the issue of those who are employees of the Department of Health and all those who are employed by bodies directly funded by the Department of Health who are forced to retire. I believe there is no link between mandatory retirement age and preserved pension age, nor does this draft Bill serve to change the pension benefits or pension age. It should be noted however that any change to the existing pension arrangement could have significant cost implications, as alluded to by the Minister, and would in the first place, be a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

I am in favour of section 6 of the Bill which refers to a presumption that an individual is fit to work. This section states, "Any individual who seeks to have a mandatory retirement age clause ignored, under the regulations provided for by this Act, shall be assumed to be fit to work unless a registered medical practitioner has determined that they have become unfit to work as a result of the existence of a medical condition." I believe this to be a fair and equitable clause. I also strongly support section 8, otherwise known as the "grandfather clause" which states, "Any individual who attained the mandatory retirement age within two years of the commencement of this Act may apply to the Minister to have their employment reinitiated, under the same terms and conditions that were available to them, if they retired as a result of attaining that age." This clause would appear to be fair to those who have recently reached retirement age and I believe this could still be applied to other sectors such as the teaching profession.

We have heard much talk of how staffing poses one of the biggest challenges in the medical field. The HSE, the largest employer in the country, is obliged to provide health care for all conditions and illnesses and it is faced with unique challenges in retaining the professions and the specialist skills of a range of medical practitioners. Senators, including Senator Gilroy, have spoken about this at length and Senator Crown outlined specific areas of expertise where the HSE is losing employees because of this mandatory requirement, which seems totally nonsensical.

I will now turn to consultants. There are some specialties in which there are international shortages and in which posts have been traditionally difficult to fill. Shortages in specialties such as emergency medicine and psychiatry are a worldwide phenomenon and not specific to the Irish health services. My own mother was very upset at having to retire at the age of 65 but she still works privately. She really enjoyed her work and was missed in the service as she was head of the section when she retired.She missed it very much and was missed by the Mayo psychiatric services. It was sad to see her have to retire earlier than she had wanted to. I have a particular sympathy for where Senator Crown is coming from in regard to the Bill.

Sourcing successors can also take time, an issue which the Minister touched on, even where the retirement date of the occupant of a pivotal role is known. There are also some hospitals to which historically it has been difficult to attract applicants, in particular smaller hospitals. Notwithstanding these factors, it is appropriate that decisions, in limited circumstances, about the rehiring of retired medical staff are made by health service employers rather than driven by the employee's assessment of the situation.

Certain specialist nursing grades, particularly theatre nurses and nurses with particular specialist qualifications, are valuable resources that can be difficult to replace and forced retirement on attaining the retirement age can result in a significant resource loss to the system. In recent years, there have been particular difficulties in recruiting in this area. The national integrated strategic framework for health workforce planning will include representatives of the Departments of Health, Children and Youth Affairs, Education and Skills, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Justice and Equality and Public Expenditure and Reform. The Higher Education Authority and SOLAS will also be involved with a range of HSE directorates. The working group will begin meeting early next year and submit the framework to the Minister by October 2016. The plan will include a high-level implementation plan and associated deliverables.

I agree in principle with the Bill and the comments that it is quite complicated and would have wider implications for Government policy in terms of public sector pay, pensions and workforce planning. Consultation will be required with relevant stakeholders, including the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and Social Protection, and the HSE and other agencies under the remit of the Department. I am not necessarily in favour of limiting it solely to health service employees. There is no reason it could not be extended to the public sector. Given that agency doctors have been employed at a high cost to the health service, surely this would be a way of getting around that major cost in view of the shortage of available qualified personnel for the health service.