Joe Conway (Independent)

This proposed legislation is very progressive. I am delighted that as part of the programme for Government it has been given early prominence in the legislative schedule of the Houses of the Oireachtas. The disjoint between the mandatory retirement age of 65 and the age at which people can access a State pension is really counterintuitive. It is almost as if people are being penalised for being in robust good health such that they can work until 65 or even longer.At the same time, they are put into this sort of limbo where they are devoid of the standardised luxury of an income, and they have to go to social welfare and go through all sorts of hoops to get them through to the pension age. That is not very good for people's morale after a lifetime in the workforce doing decent work for the State and for us all.

The new pattern of work in the years ahead is going to be manifestly a time of changing careers and people not just sticking to a job they start at 18 or 20 and adhering to it until they are ready to assume pensionable status. We see very frequently now people changing careers at 40 and 50 and then moving on to something often through no choice of their own. Sometimes, life just deals them a difficult hand of cards and they have to adjust. However, by and large, people do. People who have the positivity and who are blessed with the good strength and fortitude of good mental health can usually be resourceful enough to move on to a new career, and that is to be greatly admired. This should not just be the be all and end all of the legislation. The Government should be looking at the possibility of having people continuing in employment productively into whatever age they feel they are capable of generating productive work for the State.

I was blessed to be given the new career in the Houses of the Oireachtas at the end of January last. By and large, I am probably acquitting myself reasonably well along with my colleagues in the Seanad even though I am well into my eighth decade. That is a matter of considerable pride to me. I would like to make this career longer, so I entreat the Minister of State and her Government colleagues to please get on nicely together and give me a nice extension of my career until whenever - 2029. I would be immensely grateful for that.

I just want to refer to the "justifiable criteria" that are mentioned in the proposed legislation where employers can look at justifiable criteria they might be able to resile from the legislation. The first one is on health and safety concerns where the nature of the work poses risks if performed beyond a certain age, and employers in those case must show evidence that continued employment would be compromising safety or health. That is eminently reasonable. In succession planning and workforce management, again, employers must be able to show that they are ensuring opportunities for younger workers of maintaining a career path and progression, and those measures must be balanced and proportionate, not simply a blanket or catch-all rule. The legislation refers to operational requirements where the role demands physical capacity or specific employment standards cannot reasonably be made beyond a certain age. We could make a list, but if we start making a list, we just realise that there is no such thing as an exhaustive list in that regard so it is better not to indicate anything. On preservation of institutional integrity in certain professions, retirement ages may be justified to maintain institutional balance and renewal. On consistency then with international standards, some sectors are regulated by international regulations and set maximum ages for safety critical tasks.

It is possible to look on those criteria in a sort of pejorative way, but they seem to be eminently sensible, which makes the proposed legislation very rounded and fair-minded. I have certainly not heard anybody in our Seanad Independent Group who has voiced a titter of opposition of this to me knowing that I was coming up here this afternoon. Speaking informally to people from the other parties outside, there seems to be an acceptance that what was done in the Lower House was a fair harbinger of what was going to happen here. I am, therefore, delighted to signal our support for this legislation. Go n-éirí go geal leis an Aire Stáit leis an mBille seo.