Vol. 489 No. 3
210 Mr. P. Carey asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if all contributions made to social welfare prior to and after 1953 can be treated as equal value and provide pensioners with their full contributory old age pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8069/98]
To qualify for the old age contributory pension, a person must, (i) have entered insurance at least ten years before pension age; (ii) have at least 156 contributions paid; and, (iii) have a yearly average of at least 20 contributions, or 24 in the case of a retirement pension, registered since January 1953 when the unified system of social insurance came into effect, or the time they started insurable employment, if later. The yearly average condition was reduced to ten contributions for the new pro-rata old age (contributory) pension which came into force with effect from 21 November last. To qualify, a person with a yearly average of between ten and 19 must have 260 rather than 156 paid contributions.
Prior to 1953 three different types of contributions were payable — national health insurance, widow's and orphan's pension and unemployment insurance contributions. These gave specific entitlement only to the benefits of the schemes under which they were paid.
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 this pension. However, social insurance paid before 1953 under the national health insurance Acts can be taken into account for old age contributory pension purposes in satisfying the first two conditions, set out in the first paragraph above, but cannot be used in calculating the yearly average.
211 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will extend the free travel scheme to recipients of qualifying British pensions when they travel to Ireland on an occasional basis including holidays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8135/98]
The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years, or over, and to certain people with disabilities under the age who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments. The scheme provides free travel, primarily at off-peak periods, to eligible people on the main public and private transport services. At the end of last January, about 505,000 people qualified for free travel at an annual cost of £33 million.
The scheme was extended in 1995 to cover cross-Border travel between Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is available to passholders in Ireland, their spouses or companions in the case of people holding companion passes, and to Northern Ireland concession travel passholders. Any extension of the scheme on the lines suggested by the Deputy would involve additional expenditure which could only be considered in a budgetary context.
