Sir, – What an excellent letter by Mary Morrissey on the age of retirement (June 13th). Your letter-writer makes several very valid points on the subject. It's particularly true that "to stop emigration and give young people a chance, then older people must retire".
To our shame, we already have a mechanism in Ireland for transferring massive amounts of wealth from the young to the old in the form of astronomical house prices. Ireland does not need over-65s “job hoarding”.
In my own profession (software development) I look forward to retiring at 60. Retirement should be compulsory sometime between 60 and 65 in almost all professions, and no consideration should be given to raising it until youth unemployment drops below 1 per cent. – Yours, etc,
RONAN SCANLAN,
Leopardstown,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Mary Morrissey (June 13th) supports compulsory retirement from the public service at age 65 – but only for those recruited before a particular date! Those recruited in recent years have no such compulsory retirement age of 65. Improving health conditions mean that today’s 65-year-olds are often like the 45-year-olds of a century ago. Times change, and outmoded rules must change with them.
On the one hand, one hears complaints of too many pensioners depending on too few workers. On the other, society forces youthful 65-year-olds, at the peak of their experience and energy, to retire whether they like it or not. That is illogical, discriminatory and unfair. It is time to change it. – Yours, etc,
Dr SEÁN Ó RIAIN,
Vienna.