SEANAD REPORT:JOHN KELLY (Lab) said he had no idea why consideration was not being given to fingerprinting for all citizens of this country. Social welfare fraud was rife, he said in the debate on the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill.

“Any law-abiding citizen would be quite willing to be fingerprinted in relation to claiming social welfare,” he said.

“If they’re law-abiding, there’s no issue with it. I think it’s something we should consider down the road.”

Katherine Zappone (Ind) said she shared concerns that had been expressed in the Dáil and in the media about the impact of legislative changes to raise the pensionable age to 68.

She was also aware of criticism that the legislation was being rushed through, so much so that the Oireachtas library service had been unable to produce a digest because of the short timespan between publication of the Social Welfare and Pensions Bill and the debate in the Dáil. She wished to make the point that the service had worked with her on the question she had raised relative to an examination of a possible link between elevating the pension age and increasing poverty. The additional scrutiny of law that the Seanad afforded was, in this instance, supported by an innovative approach to researching the issue she had raised.

Dr Zappone, a nominee of the Taoiseach, said the scenarios that had emerged from the research showed retirees could spend a variable number of years in poverty. While care had to be taken not to make sweeping generalisations, she was trying to provide some evidence that there was a need to fully poverty-proof the implications of increasing the pension age before it was enshrined in law.

Migrant workers who “blew the whistle” on abuses in nursing homes and other institutions should be protected from deportation if they lost their jobs as a result of their action, Ronan Mullen (Ind) said.

It would be invidious and unjust if, as a result of making an allegation of wrongdoing, which was in the public interest, people might find themselves in a vulnerable situation. He would be bringing forward a motion dealing with protecting such people. “I think we should have particular regard to the challenge facing migrant workers of the kind that were involved in blowing the whistle in the case of the Rostrevor nursing home.”