Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is that agreed? Agreed. The next petition is P00053/12 in the name of Mrs. Catherine Doran concerning eligibility criteria for the contributory State pension. This is an interesting petition in that it affects a significant number of older people in Ireland, and women in particular. This individual is clearly having difficulties and is not allowed under the current legislative arrangement to collect the full amount of the pension. It is important that opportunities are provided to debate policy issues of this nature. However, one of the criteria of the committee is that we ask petitioners to attempt to resolve their issues through as many avenues as possible.