Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 10, after line 35, to insert the following: “Report to ensure people aged 65 years of age have the right to retire on a State pension contributory

19. 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 1 month of the passing of this Act.”.

As the Minister has acknowledged, we are restricted to asking for reports. Through amendments Nos. 11 and 12, we are asking for two reports. The first is to ensure people aged 65 years of age have the right to retire on a State contributory pension. The amendment requests that

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 1 month of the passing of this Act.

As the Minister will know, the issue of pension age was huge during the last general election campaign. I pay tribute to our brothers and sisters in the trade union movements who led the campaign to stop the increase of the pension age to 67. It was a successful campaign, and quite rightly so. Sinn Féin firmly believes people should have the option to retire at 65. Equally, they should have the option to continue to work if they are fit and well. We believe the option is important because we know so many people affected, including those in construction and retail and those who spend 40 or 50 years of their lives on their feet doing hard manual labour. The truth of the matter is that many of them are not able to work beyond the age of 65. They should not be punished for that or to take a lesser payment for it. Instead, their working lives should be recognised and they should be entitled to a full pension.

We need to take a more enlightened approach here. There are countries in Europe that recognise that construction workers, for example, should retire earlier because their bodies are literally worn out. I have a young son who is doing the second year of his apprenticeship in plumbing and I can already see the physical toll construction sites have taken on him in the past couple of years. The right to retire at 65 is important. It is an issue of fairness. Not all of us work in offices or have the luxury of not having to work extremely hard doing physical labour every day. Those who do such labour should have the right to retire at 65. I am asking for a report on that.

The second amendment, amendment No. 12, seeks a report on establishing a social welfare adequacy commission. This has been a key theme in our party for some time. The amendment states:

The Minister shall carry out a review on establishing a social welfare adequacy commission in order to ensure social welfare rates meet a Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) to study the effect that adequacy of social welfare rates could have on addressing poverty levels and that the report shall be presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection ahead of Budget 2026.

This is just a very good, progressive measure. The report would be very worthwhile.

We all acknowledge that the Covid crisis saw an acknowledgement by the Government that social welfare rates were not where the needed to be. In fairness, it acted then. It had to and it did. However, there is a bigger job of work. It is very reasonable to request a report outlining what the levels need to be. Obviously, we would work co-operatively to establish those levels over time.