Vol. 549 No. 3
330 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of countries with which he has established bilateral agreements in respect of qualification and payment of social welfare benefits and entitlements in the past four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6895/02]
In the past four years one additional bilateral agreement has come into operation, making provision for the aggregation of insurance records and the payment of pensions on the aggregated record where the person does not have a sufficient record under one legislation alone. This agreement was with Switzerland, and it came into effect on 1 July 1999. This brought the number of such agreements to seven.
Negotiations are at an advanced stage with regard to the completion of similar agreements with Korea and the United Kingdom, covering in the latter case third country nationals who are not at present covered by the EU regulations on social security for migrant workers and the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands which are not part of the EU.
Consideration has also been given to negotiating similar agreements with some of the countries of central and eastern Europe. However, if the enlargement of the EU goes ahead as planned in 2004, the application of the far more comprehensive provisions of the EU regulations for migrant workers would make any such agreements unnecessary.
The recently established emigrant task force, on which my Department is represented, will examine the position of Irish workers abroad. Its report, due later this year, will greatly assist the evaluation by my Department of whether further bilateral agreements are necessary to adequately protect the pension rights of workers moving between Ireland and other States.
