Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I endorse the remarks of Senator Black around the importance of music and the arts. As she said, it is great that gigs are back and events are starting to happen again. Things have been difficult and we need to support the sector as it reopens.

I want to raise the question of pensions. I am concerned by some of the very populist debate that is happening around pensions at the moment and that we are not thinking sufficiently long-term. Those who will sit their leaving certificate next year will probably not retire until the late 2060s or early 2070s. They will have a life expectancy of 90. They will live a lot longer. The big difference between now and 30 years' time is that at the moment there are five people working for every one person who has retired but within 30 years we will be in a situation where, on current projections, we will only have two workers for everybody over the age of 65. I worry that this timebomb is something we are not addressing.

When we are having a debate around what age people should retire at now, we are not looking at the bigger picture. We continue to kick the can down the road. Many of our fellow European countries, such as Italy, Germany and France, have failed to address this issue and that has now led to large-scale social unrest and disagreement between the generations. I worry that because of our failure to address this long-term issue, and given some of the populist language being used during the pensions debate, those now aged in their teens, 20s and 30s will suffer far more because we are not having a realistic debate. I ask for a comprehensive and real debate on the long-term implications of pensions.