I shouldn’t have to quit at 65, says professor
AN unmarried and childless professor at the University of Limerick has said forcing people to retire at 65 is just as ‘discriminatory’ as the marriage bar which ‘we now understand to be discrimination on the grounds of gender’.
Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at UL, Pat O’Connor, told the joint Oireachtas Committee on Compulsory Retirement: ‘If I had ten children and 50 grandchildren, I would be doing unpaid work in the home. But I don’t, so what is the social usefulness of me shining my brass up?’
There have been repeated calls for the abolition of the mandatory retirement age for public servants, which stands at 65 for those who joined the service before 2004.
This includes a recommendation from the Citizens’ Assembly earlier this year, with the Employment Equality (Abolition of Mandatory Retirement Age) Bill 2016 proceeding through the Dáil. The Bill was introduced by Sinn Féin last year.
Describing the rule as ‘crazy’ in the context of increasing life expectancy, Prof O’Connor, who retired from UL in August 2016, said that just as a person’s capacity to drive beyond a certain age is tested, she feels medical tests could be implemented to determine a person’s ability to work.
Prof O’Connor, who highlighted the fact that she is unmarried and has no children or grandchildren to look after or enjoy, said that while she recognises that some people wish to retire early ‘and play golf and bridge, to me, I have always thought it has been a great privilege to work in higher education’.
She added: [The retirement rule] is based on the problematic idea that people are saving the country money if they retire by giving a job to a young person.
‘This assumes that every public sector person is simply a cost. And the State is not really saving – it’s paying me a substantial amount of money to do nothing, or paying me to go and work in the private sector, which I’m not interested in.’
There is no mandatory retirement age in the private sector, but it is usually specified in a person’s terms of contract. Former minister for finance Michael Noonan said he supports the Bill in principle.
‘Life expectancy is much longer now than it used to be, and people are quite active and well capable of working at a later age,’ said the 74year-old. Fianna Fáil deputy Willie O’Dea said his party has proposed a similar Bill, but both remained ‘languishing, waiting to be taken up by committee’.