Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

No, not really, but I thank the Deputy for them. We sent all of our material to the Clerk of the Committee over a week ago. I do not know if the Deputy's personal assistant has had an opportunity to examine the material. We have forwarded a lot of documentation and information, as requested by the committee.

If someone is coming up to pension age, he or she should send his or her details to the Department, as most people do, some three months before he or she expects to retire. He or she can be assured of a first-class service because the structures for establishing old-age pension entitlements are very good, particularly those for insurance based contributory pensions, with which there are not many difficulties. Persons who have not made contributions and are looking for a non-contributory pension often have to supply more information. If people want to know where they stand, they can approach our offices and we will try to give them the information. Sometimes they have broken periods of employment and the employers have long since gone out of business. We do an awful lot of work to help people. Some 93% of contributory pensions are awarded within five weeks of application. This is a significant payment which carries other entitlements. It is, therefore, a very good processing time. If people want information in advance to check their status or look back on different periods of employment, the staff of the Department are very helpful in providing assistance.