Vol. 540 No. 2
201 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will consider asking the Pensions Board to carry out an investigation into the Tara Mines pension fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20318/01]
I am fully aware of and have sympathy for the situation concerning the Tara Disabled Mineworker's Association, as I and my officials have met this group on a number of occasions. The Pensions Board has investigated the complaint of this group in detail in relation to the pension plan and it is satisfied that the trustees of the Tara Mines pension plan are conducting themselves strictly in accordance with the terms of the pension scheme. I understand that the board obtained independent counsel's opinion which confirmed this position.
202 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of people who have applied to avail of pre-1953 stamps; the number of applications which have been processed and approved; the number of applications still being processed; the average processing period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20413/01]
The scheme to which the Deputy refers provides for a special half rate old age contributory pension from 5 May 2000 for people who commenced insurable employment before 1953 and who had at least five years paid insurance comprising either national health insurance or a combination of social insurance or national health insurance.
Since its introduction, a total of almost 18,700 applications for the pre-1953 pension have been received from people not previously getting a pension from my Department. Some 8,900 of these applications have been decided and pensions were awarded to some 6,100 of people in these cases. A further 9,800 applications are at various stages of processing. In addition to the applications already decided, a further 8,500 pre-1953 pensions have also been awarded to people already in receipt of a pro rata old age contributory or retirement pension at a lower weekly personal rate. This brings the total number already benefiting from this initiative to 14,600.
At the time I introduced this scheme, it was expected that some 3,000 people would benefit from this improvement. I am pleased to say the take up has far exceeded expectations. An unfortunate downside of this success is that it has not been possible to process all claims as quickly as I would have wished. The pre-1953 claims take longer than normal to process for a variety of reasons. These include the lapse of time since the relevant employment and the difficulties of tracing old insurance records in respect of employments over 50 years old. The delay could have been eliminated or greatly reduced by deferring the operative date, but I decided not to do so on the basis that those affected should benefit from the provisions as soon as possible.
The processing of these claims has been organised on a once-off project basis. This is the most appropriate means of handling a new initiative involving a significant bulge in claims intake which are not part of the standard pension process and which would require some time to resolve. A consequence of this is that the information on the average time to process claims is not maintained on an ongoing basis as would be the case with non-project workloads.
Every effort is being made to deal with the applications received as quickly as possible. It had been hoped to clear all the pre-1953 claims by the end of this year, but this is becoming more unlikely as the number of new applications received is still running at a level of 300 a week on average. I assure the Deputy that the delay in processing applications will not result in any losses to pensioners who are awarded pre-1953 pensions. Their claims will be backdated in accordance with the normal provisions governing the backdating of pension claims.
