Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Question 543: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his attention has been drawn to the huge number of people in the workforce who want to work after they reach retirement age, the huge reservoir of talent that is lost to the economy as a consequence of a predetermined retirement age, that such workers believe passionately in their right to work and that they have a great deal to contribute; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20751/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There is no age discrimination in employment rights legislation and there are no provisions in employment or equality law that impose a compulsory retirement from employment. The Employment Equality Acts 1998 and 2004, among other things, protect against discrimination on the ground of age in relation to access to employment. However, they also permit an employer to decide on a retirement age in a particular employment to give flexibility to employers and employees, having due regard to the nature of the work being performed. There is therefore no single fixed retirement age for employees in Ireland. Retirement age is set out in a person's contract of employment, some of which do have a mandatory retirement age. However, it is open to the employee and employer to negotiate another contract. The usual retirement age is 65.

Many employment contracts have provisions for early retirement from age 60 or in some cases from age 55 and most have provision for early retirement on health grounds. Where an employee is subject to a mandatory retirement age in their job, there is nothing to prevent them taking up a different job when they retire or taking up self-employment. With effect from 1 April, 2004, it is not compulsory for new entrants to the public service to retire at a particular age if they are fit and willing to remain in employment. The existing retirement conditions, in agreement with the relevant unions, have been retained for existing employees. To do otherwise would be a breach of the terms and conditions of employment of employees. To encourage longer working and to improve income support for older people, the new enhanced State pension (non-contributory) for those over 66 years featured an employment earnings disregard incentive amounting to €200 per week in 2007.

The National Pensions Review, published last year, made a number of recommendations to encourage people to continue working after normal retirement age. This included allowing people to defer receiving their social welfare pension at normal pension age and to grant them an actuarially enhanced payment when they claim. The Government is shortly to produce a Green Paper on Pensions with a view to developing a framework for future pensions policy. This will include an examination of the issues surrounding pensions and retirement age.

In the absence of specific data, it is difficult to quantify the numbers who wish to work past the fixed retirement age. However, the employment rate for people aged 60-64 would indicate that most people opt out of the labour force by choice before 65. The employment rate for those in the 60-64 age category is 45.3%. This compares to an overall employment rate of 68.9%. In addition to facilitating people to work past 65, a major challenge is to encourage people to remain in work at least up to the age of 65.