To qualify for old age contributory pension, the person concerned must have entered insurance at least ten years before pension age. This condition has been a feature of the scheme since its introduction in 1961. The purpose of the condition is to link entitlement to a pension with a reasonable level of contributions to the social insurance fund during a person's career. This condition applies to all insured people, self-employed or otherwise.
According to the Department's records, the person concerned became insured for the first time when social insurance was extended to the self-employed in 1988. He was then aged 57. As a result, he will not qualify for old age contributory pension under the current legislation when he reaches pension age of 66 years in 1997. The Department will formally assess his eligibility for either a contributory or a non-contributory old age pension about three months before his 66th birthday in late 1997. If he does not qualify for either type of pension, he can apply for a refund of the old age contributory pension element of his PRSI contributions.
The National Pensions Board, in its final report Developing the National Pension System, put forward a number of recommendations relating to eligibility for old age pensions. These include proposals for a wider scale of pro rata pensions related to a lower average number of contributions over an insurer's lifetime. However, it also recommended that the minimum number of paid social insurance contributions to qualify for an old age contributory pension be increased from the current level of 156 (three years) to 520 (ten years) contributions. This report and its many recommendations are being studied within my Department at present. I intend to bring forward proposals in due course on the issues addressed by the National Pensions Board, particularly relating to the question of pro rata pensions.