Pension plan a ‘Trojan horse’ to force people to keep working until 70, Mary Lou McDonald says

The Coaliiton “is trying to pull a manoeuvre,” she said, which would unsettle all workers.

She said a Government led by her party would ensure a retirement age at 65, and she condemned talk of a pensions timebomb of national unaffordability as the creation of “a sense of menace and hysteria.”

The Government is giving details today of a new calibrated system whereby people who choose to continue to work after the current retirement age of 66 would be entitled to graduated payment improvements for each extra year by which they persist in employment over those who opt to go.

“As you know, Sinn Féin has been consistent in our position on this: that the right to retire on a State pension is at 65,” Ms McDonald said in Dublin.

“People who wish to work on of course have to have the freedom to do so. But what's been leaked overnight and what we're hearing, it strikes me, is a proposal that is almost a Trojan horse, to raise the pension age in reality to the age of 70.”

Speaking at a press conference calling for a national demonstration of opposition to the cost of living crisis, with a march on the Dáil from Parnell Square scheduled for 2.30pm this Saturday, Ms McDonald said she was “very alarmed” by the new Government pension proposals.

“I'm very concerned by that. I know that working people of all ages would be very unsettled to hear of it. So I just want to say again for the purposes of clarity in a civilized, prosperous, indeed a wealthy society: The choice of retirement is at the age of 65, not 70,” she said.

“It seems to me that Government is trying to pull a manoeuvre on this.”

Ms McDonald said Sinn Féin would meet any demographic increase in cost by increasing employers’ PRSI, rather than the employee contribution.