Mandatory retirement - Age limit is unfair and must be axed

IT IS ridiculous that former Garda Assistant Commissioner Martin Donnellan had to go to court to try to hold on to his job because he had reached a mandatory but irrational retirement age of 60. It is even more ridiculous that his case was dismissed.

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie ruled it “was clear that the regulation did not lack logic and that it was necessary for a sense of renewal and motivation throughout the Force, and to generate movement, motivation and dynamism within An Garda Síochána”.

Let us hope the implication that “renewal... movement, motivation and dynamism” are not as important for the judiciary is untrue, even though judges regularly sit on the bench well after their 70th birthday.