asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will give a detailed account of the present agreement between the Government and Britain regarding reciprocal arrangements for payments of British social welfare benefits in this country and vice versa; the number of persons in this country at present in receipt of British (a) retirement or old age pensions, (b) widows' pensions, (c) sickness benefit, (d) war pensions, and (e) benefits not already mentioned; what improvements in the present position are being sought by this country in the present negotiations; and what progress has been made to date.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - British Social Welfare Benefits.
19.
A copy of the present Agreement on reciprocity in the matter of social welfare payments between the Government of this country and the Government of the United Kingdom is available in the Dáil Library. It is Statutory Instrument No. 96 of 1960. Should the Deputy require information regarding any special aspect of the Agreement, I shall be pleased to supply it.
According to the Report of the British Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance for the year 1963, which is the latest available, there were resident here on 31st December, 1963, 10,440 persons in receipt of British retirement pensions and 1,360 persons in receipt of British widows' pensions. There were also 8,600 war pensioners.
As regards the other classes mentioned I should point out that a benefit such as sickness, unemployment etc. payable under the provisions of the British National Insurance Acts cannot be paid to persons resident in this country. The Deputy may, however, have in mind persons resident here who by virtue of reciprocal arrangements become entitled to payment of sickness, unemployment, maternity, marriage and treatment benefits in accordance with the provisions of the Social Welfare Acts. The number of such persons in receipt of benefit at any given time is not readily available. In 1964, however, 5,776 qualified for sickness benefit and 4,895 for unemployment benefit. In 1964 also a transfer of contributions paid or credited under the British National Insurance Acts was sought under the present Agreement with a view to establishing title to maternity benefit, marriage benefit and treatment benefit in 1,619, 54 and 2,543 cases respectively.
There are no negotiations in progress in connection with this Agreement; the negotiations to which the Deputy refers relate to a proposed agreement on reciprocity in the matter of pensions which is the subject of the reply to the next question.
20.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether, in view of the long delays in concluding a new agreement on reciprocal arrangements for the payment of British social welfare benefit in this country, the urgency of the matter and the hardship imposed on many recipients of these benefits here, he will take this matter up at Ministerial level and ask the British Minister of Pensions and National Insurance to engage in negotiations with him on the matter.
I presume that the question refers to the proposed reciprocal agreement in regard to pensions as there are existing reciprocal arrangements with the British authorities in other social welfare matters.
Considerable progress has been made towards the proposed pensions agreement in discussions between officers of my Department and officers of the British Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. At present, further proposals are awaited from the British side in regard to financial and other aspects of the matter which, when received, may enable an agreement to be drafted.
I have already on more than one occasion personally taken up at Ministerial level the question of the freezing of British pensions payable to persons resident in this country and I will not hesitate to do so again if at any time I feel that such an approach would be beneficial.