Submission 147

April 2008

Green Paper submission

I worked in the Civil Service from 1969 to 1975, in which year I got married and had my family. In those days I didn’t have any choice but to retire and rear my children. I stayed in the home as a full time parent and wife. I am married to a Civil Servant who is now retired and in receipt of aCivil Servants pension. As the law now stands, I am not entitled to any pension in my own right, even when I reach the age of 66 years. I feel I am being discriminated against as are several of my contemporaries who did not return to the workforce, when their families were reared. I was never a burden on the State and never received benefits from the State other than children’s allowance, which in those days was menial. I feel very strongly that every citizen should be entitled to a pension in their own right.