Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 23, between lines 33 and 34, to insert the following: “Report in ensuring people aged 65 years of age have right to retire on State Pension Contributory

45.The Minister shall prepare and lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas on restoring the option on the right to retire for those aged 65 years of age on a State pension contributory and that the report shall be presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection within 9 months of the enactment of this Act.”.

In recent weeks, we have seen announcements in terms of increases in PRSI for employees.Our proposal to increase employers' PRSI on the portion of pay above €100,000 would immediately cover the cost of introducing a right to retire on a pension at 65 years of age.

If you have been working on your feet all day, whether it be in construction, hairdressing or retail, you deserve to have the choice to retire on a pension at 65. Voters sent that message loud and clear in 2020. Reluctantly, the Government parties - especially Fine Gael, which intended to raise the State pension age to 68 years - called off the previously legislated-for increases to the pension age. The Government introduced a payment for people who retire at 65 years but it is completely inadequate and is paid at €45 per week less than the State pension and €2,356 less over the course of the full year.

The various options developed and data gathered by the Pensions Commission made it clear that it is possible to put the Social Insurance Fund onto a sustainable footing and afford people a right to retire on a pension at 65 years of age. The fairest path to ensure the sustainability of our Social Insurance Fund is through graduated increases in the level of employers’ PRSI beginning with the portion of salaries above €100,000. Sinn Féin was the first party to put forward the issue of the sustainability of the Social Insurance Fund and the levels of social insurance contributions. In the teeth of a cost-of-living crisis, with workers facing elevated prices in the medium term, the focus should be on increasing the rate of employers’ PRSI.

It is not fair for the Government to expect people like blocklayers who has been laying blocks all their lives and cleaners on their feet all day, dragging the hoover around after them, to not have the right to retire at 65. In some instances, these people have been doing this work since they were 16 years of age. The Government expects people working extremely hard in tough physical jobs for decades to keep going beyond 65. This is simply not fair and the Government cannot expect people to just keep going and going. These people have put their shift in and deserve the right to retire on a pension at 65 years of age.