asked the Minister for Social Welfare when she will introduce legislation to take account of the anomaly faced by many contributory pensioners (details supplied).
Written Answers. - Contributory Old Age Pensions.
107.
One of the qualifying conditions for receipt of a contributory old age pension under the Social Welfare Acts requires a person to have a yearly average of at least 20 reckonable contributions over the period from the beginning of the 1953 contribution year or from his year of entry into insurance, whichever is the later, to the end of the last complete contribution year before reaching pension age. The Department's records show that the person concerned had 296 reckonable contributions from 1953 to 1958 and a further 259 such contributions from 1 April 1974 to 5 April 1985, the latest date for which contributions are recorded in respect of him. The total of 555 is equal to a yearly average of only 16 in the relevant period which, in his case, is from 5 January 1953 to 5 April 1986. He does not, therefore, qualify for a contributory old age pension.
The position regarding persons with broken insurance records is being considered in conjunction with the report of the Commission on Social Welfare.