Vol. 509 No. 6
471 Ms Clune asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the provision, if any, he will make to provide a contributory pension for self-employed people who were born prior to 1927; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21581/99]
The same qualifying conditions for the old age contributory pension apply to all insured people – both employees and self-employed. These qualifying conditions require a person to have entered social insurance at least ten years before reaching pensionable age, which is 66; a minimum of 156 contributions paid in line with the recommendations of the National Pensions Board – this requirement will increase to 260 and 520 paid contributions from April 2002 and April 2012, respectively – and have a yearly average of at least ten contributions paid or credited from 1953 or the date of entry into social insurance, if later.
However, in line with this Government's commitment to extend contributory pensions coverage to people who narrowly failed to qualify for a pension, last April I introduced special arrangements for a specific group of people. These are self-employed people who were 56 years of age or over in April 1988 when social insurance was extended to the self-employed. As a result, this group could not qualify for a pension as they did not satisfy the standard requirement of having entered insurance at least ten years before pension age.
