Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 October 2004
185 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if there will be development of the homemaker‘s scheme in view of recommendations of the review which was undertaken; and the details of all the recommendations of this review. [23376/04]
View answerThe homemaker's scheme was introduced in 1994 and is intended to protect the pension entitlements of those who take time out of the paid workforce for caring duties. The scheme allows up to 20 years to be disregarded when a person's insurance record is being averaged to assess entitlement for contributory pension purposes. The scheme will not of itself qualify a person for a pension as the standard qualifying conditions relating to the type and number of contributions paid or credited must also be satisfied.
In August 2000, my Department published a review of the qualifying conditions for old age contributory and retirement pensions. This review also included a general examination of the homemaker's scheme and the report suggested a number of reforms for further consideration.
These included the possibility of changing the operative date of the scheme and replacing the disregard system with one based on actual credited contributions. These suggestions are being examined in more detail in the second part of the review. This phase of the review is also looking at changes to the qualifying conditions for contributory and retirement pensions suggested in the phase one report together with a range of other issues.
I expect the review will be ready for publication in the next few months and developments in relation to the homemaker's scheme will be considered in the light of the conclusions of that report.
