Vote: Is it fair to raise the retirement age for ordinary citizens to 70?

Garda Commissioner Noreen O’Sullivan retired this week with a lump sum of €300,000 and an annual pension of €90,000. The Government may now raise the retirement age for ordinary citizens to 70 when they will get  a pension of less than €12,000 per annum. 

Do you think this is fair?

Age Action, Ireland’s leading advocacy organisation for older people, has expressed its opposition to another increase in the State Pension age. The organisation was responding to media reports on proposals from the ESRI to increase the State Pension age to 70.

Justin Moran, Head of Advocacy and Communications, said: “The pension age is already due to rise to 68 over the next ten years and we would be absolutely opposed to any suggestion to increase it again.

“Not everyone works in an office. Forcing workers in physically demanding jobs like construction, agriculture or healthcare to keep working as they age has serious health implications. 

“The overwhelming majority of us are going to rely on the State Pension in retirement. We need to ensure it is fair and sustainable. But the solution is not simply to keep increasing the pension age.

“We need to abolish mandatory retirement, divert some of the money funding private pension tax breaks into the State Pension system and look at increasing social insurance contributions.”