Workers should be allowed to decide if they want to retire at 65, Sinn Fein boss Mary Lou McDonald has said.
It’s understood the Pensions Commission is set to recommend that workers should be required to work for 40 years before they can qualify for a full State pension.
But Mary Lou McDonald said workers, especially manual workers, should be able to get full pensions by the time they are 65.
“If you’ve worked on factory floors, in manual jobs, in caring jobs by the time you reach the age of 65, you’ve paid your dues, you’ve paid your way and you have to have the option to retire with your pension.
"Equally so there has to be the option to continue working – so we don’t believe in this compulsory retirement for workers,” the Dublin Central TD told RTE radio.
“Our proposal is, over the course of a number of budgets, to bring employer PRSI up by about 4%. That still means that we are well below the European average and in or about the global average,” she said, adding that the increase would not apply to self-employed people.
Deputy McDonald also called on the Government to publish the much-anticipated Commission on Pensions report so the conversation on pensions can proceed.
She added: “We don’t believe in compulsory retirement for workers.
“We know people are living longer – fortunately more and more people enjoy good health, so the issue of choice is essential.”
Ms McDonald said the age of 65 for optional retirement would be the mark of a “progressive and civilised society and economy”.
A draft Pensions Commission report recommends that an “interim” way of calculating the payment should now become the “definitive” method.
It says this should mean 40 years – or 2,040 contributions – are required at State pension age to qualify for a maximum rate pension.
However, it allows periods of ‘credited’ contributions including for home caring to be factored into the calculation.
A draft executive summary of the report that has not yet been published recommends that a “full transition” to this method of assessing entitlements known as the total contributions approach “should be implemented as soon as possible”, pending legislation and IT system changes.
