Labour TD Anne Ferris has tabled a bill that seeks to prohibit employers imposing compulsory retirement ages on their employees.

Speaking about her Employment Equality (Abolition of Mandatory Retirement Age) Bill 2014, Ms Ferris said many highly skilled people should be able to continue working after the age of 65 and should not be made retire.

In arguing the case for her Private Members' Bill she pointed to British Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn who has recently taken up his role at the age of 65.

She said there is a wider move towards "a more age respected society" but it has not happened in the realms of employment.

She remarked that today's debate must seem like something from the middle ages to some observers as mandatory retirement was outlawed in the United States in 1967.

She said that it is apparent that politicians want to remove this layer of age discrimination from the workplace.

Ms Ferris said we need more young people to run our public services but we also need the experience of older employees.

She said that up to the 1970s it was legal to issue an employment contract that discriminated by gender and she cited the marriage bar in the civil service that was introduced in the 1930s.

She said that even though most countries dropped their marriage bars by the 1950s, it was the 1970s before Ireland removed its bar.

Minister of State Aodhain Ó Riordáin said the bill is presented as an amendment to equality legislation and he pointed out that it would have serious implications for public sector employment and pensions policy.

The minister said, "Our national retirement age regime must be considered in the wider context of national employment policy, labour market and vocational training objectives, and national pension policy."

In terms of pensions policy and pension schemes, he said "the immediate implications or affordability may be positive as persons expected to retire shortly chose not to do so there may be implications for pension contributions calculated actuarily, which could have an opposite effect."

He said that the bill would have implications for employment law and the retirement clause in existing contracts would be made void without reference to the contracting parties.

In terms of the labour market and employment policy, he said it would it reduce employment opportunities and prospects of promotion for younger people and he said older workers must be protected against discrimination.

The minister said he looked forward to examining the issues in more detail at committee stage.

Fianna Fáil's Sean Fleming supported the bill and pointed out that the bill was not asking people to work longer, it was merely seeking to give people the option for longer if they wished to do so.

Labour Deputy Robert Dowds said there were people who did great work after pensionable age, but others "hung on too long", citing Eamon De Valera.

He said there is a point where people should retire, but it is hard to put an age on that because people age at different speeds and he said it was also important to recognise the needs of young people, to make sure there is space for them.

But he said he supported this bill.

Fine Gael's Frank Feighan said he also supported the bill and he said age discrimination should not be countenanced. He said it can be very "ham-fisted", the way some people have to retire.

Independent TD Peter Matthews said it is important to examine and question the issue of retirement as there are areas of work where experience and length of work is extremely important such as judges for example.

He said he was nearly at 65 and he expected to work beyond 65.