Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

However, I have not been forced to retire. I acknowledge I am under threat of divorce unless I retire shortly and so I will be retiring. However, during the week I spoke about a man to whom I had spoken on Tuesday, which was his 99th birthday, namely, Dr. T. K. Whitaker, a famous former Member of this House for two terms. He also was Chairman of the Central Bank and Secretary General of the Department of Finance. This is a man who, at 99, is fluid, is able to express himself and so on. He has been involved in many aspects of society in Ireland but I refer to seeing someone at that age who is capable, competent and able to do all the interesting things he does at present. Consequently, I believe it is wrong to have a finish at 70. While people should have an option to finish at 70 if they so wish, to insist they finish at 70 is not on. I had a large number of employees and when they came to the age of 65, one objective within the Superquinn company was to encourage them to stay on and come back, albeit perhaps not full-time. They often came back just for a few days or a few hours each week to train new people coming up. However, it impresses me when I go back into the company and meet people in their 70s who are highly competent. They could be bakers, butchers or something else. One lady who retired just last month was 88 years of age and she was well capable of doing the job. Consequently, I disagree entirely with the objective of insisting there must be a compulsory retirement age. While there certainly should be the ability to retire, it should not be compulsory and it should be possible to maintain one's job.