Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 23 Feb 1993

Vol. 426 No. 5

Written Answers. - Old Age Contributory Pensions.

Frances Fitzgerald

Ceist:

87 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will amend the legislation in relation to the averaging clause for eligibility for old age contributory pensions to include women who paid social insurance prior to 1953, and who left employment for a number of years for family or other reasons and later returned to the workforce.

Minister for Social Welfare (Dr. Woods)

To qualify for an old age contributory pension a person must have entered insurance at least ten years before reaching pension age, have at least 156 contributions paid and have a yearly average of at least 20 contributions registered since January 1953 when the unified system of social insurance came into effect, or the time they started insurable employment, if later.

Social insurance paid before 1953 under the National Health Insurance Acts can be taken into account in satisfying the first two conditions but cannot be used in calculating the yearly average.

The old age contributory pension scheme was introduced in 1961. Contributions paid by insured persons prior to 1961 did not contain an element in respect of that pension. However, as a concession and to enable persons reaching pension age at that time to qualify immediately for a contributory pension, contributions paid prior to 1953 were taken into account in calculating a person's entitlement to pension. These transitional arrangements operated until 1973. From that date contributions paid prior to 1953 were no longer counted for the purposes of the satisfying of the yearly average test. However, they are still reckonable for the other two conditions.

The whole issue of contribution conditions for social insurance pensions, including the position of persons with gaps in their insurance records due to periods spent looking after a family, are among the issues being addressed by the National Pensions Board in its final report on a new national pensions system. I expect to receive the board's report shortly and the matter will be considered further in this context.