A minister of State has said one answer to the current skills shortage would be to suspend the compulsory retirement age of 65. Mr Willie O'Dea of the Department of Education said: "In an era of increasing life expectancy and emerging labour shortages, this must surely be an extravagant waste of badly needed skills and experience."
He said because of the declining birth rate in the 1980s, annual population increases of 38,000 would reduce to 8,000 over the next decade, and "beyond that, the number of people reaching retirement age will increase rapidly".
