Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 102: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation his plans to amend employment legislation in conjunction with the raising of the pension age to ensure that workers are not forced by their employer to retire earlier than the age at which they can claim State pension. [18037/10]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I can advise the Deputy that under existing employment rights legislation in Ireland there is no compulsory retirement age specified and hence, amendment of existing legislation does not arise.

Under the Employment Equality Acts 1998 to 2008, which aim to protect against discrimination in relation to access to employment on a number of grounds including age, it is permitted to include a specific retirement age in a contract of employment without being in breach of the age-discrimination provisions of the above-mentioned equality legislation. Matters relating to the Employment Equality Acts fall within the area of responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

More generally in the context of employment rights legislation, I should point out that the upper age limit of 66 years for bringing claims under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2007 was removed in the Equality Act 2004. The effect of this is that a person, aged over 66 when dismissed, may take a case under the Unfair Dismissals Acts unless he/she has already reached the "normal retiring age" for that particular employment, if one exists.

Additionally, the upper age limit of 66 years for receipt of statutory redundancy payments was removed by the Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies and Related Matters) Act, 2007.