OPPOSITION TDs have warned the Government’s proposal to increase the pension age to 68 will “condemn swathes of older people to poverty” and “rob people of their entitlements”.

Dáil business was dominated by sharp exchanges in a row about increasing the pension age, which will rise to 66 in 2014, 67 in 2021 and 68 in 2028. Sinn Féin and the technical group of Independent TDs condemned the legislation, under which any one aged 49 or under this year will not qualify for a State pension until they are 68.

There were sharp exchanges when the issue was raised throughout the day on Leaders’ Questions, during social protection question time and during the committee stage debate on the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill, which continued late last night and is expected to pass all stages in the Dáil today.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny responded with a curt “No” when Socialist TD Joe Higgins asked him if he would “withdraw these rotten measures” in the Bill and “allow for a national debate”.

Later Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, whose party was against the move when in opposition, highlighted the significant challenges facing the Irish pension system. She emphasised the “fundamental principle that people need to participate in the workforce for longer and they need to contribute more towards their pensions if they are to achieve the income they expect or would like to have in retirement”.

She said the over-65 population was expected to more than double by 2050, from 11 per cent to 26 per cent, because people were living longer. “Spending on social welfare pensions and public service occupational pensions is projected to increase from approximately 5 per cent of GDP in 2008 to almost 15 per cent by 2050.”

Mr Higgins described the move as “socially regressive” and “heartless”. He asked Mr Kenny how he would like “to be forced to work on a construction site until he was 70 years of age”, or to have a female relative “forced to work industrial cleaning until they were almost 70 years”.

Insisting “no worker knows what is coming”, he accused the media of failing to raise the issue and said they “seem to have gone to sleep”. Mr Higgins highlighted that in just over two years’ time, “these measures will affect 11,000 workers”. Any deputy who voted for the measure should be ashamed of themselves.

Sinn Féin social protection spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh said the move would condemn “swathes of people to poverty”. He said that “when a person qualifies for the State pension transition, he or she can also apply for the fuel allowance. From 2014, this will not be possible. A person could be retired at 65 years of age but on jobseeker’s benefit to make up the year until he or she qualified for the State pension. This will exempt him or her from qualifying for the fuel allowance.”

When Ms Burton said many people wanted to work longer, John Halligan (Ind, Waterford) asked if the Minister was “serious that people such as small farmers, who might work 70 to 90 hours per week, and shift workers, who might have been doing shift work for 20 to 40 years, want to work an extra year when they reach 65”.

Joan Collins (PBP, Dublin South-Central) said the problem was that the provision was mandatory when it should be optional.