End this veto - Age discrimination

Over the last century or so, the world’s more liberal societies worked to end discrimination based on gender, religion, sexual orientation, or race. 

They have been largely successful, certainly far more so than might have been imagined in 1916. However, in one area discrimination is as strong as it ever was — how we define people by their age.

In an effort to confront this, Age Action has called for the abolition of mandatory retirement clauses that force workers out of work for no reason other than the date on their birth certificate. There are around 540,000 people aged 65 or over in Ireland today — 12% of the population — but this will rise to 1.4m — 22% — in 25 years. Many of us will live longer than our parents, but that advance is tempered by the prospect facing tens of thousands — a genteel poverty in old age.