Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, we will be looking to keep the moneys we have and I do not anticipate that our budget will be reduced next year. It will be in line with what we had this year. As I said, just because there is a drop in one column does not mean it is not taken up in another column. We anticipate we will have the same amount of money next year.

I am not sure we can call the pension issue discriminatory. I heard what the Deputy said about the cohort of people affected. It is not all women but it is women in the main. I am going to fix it but it will be in the context of overhauling the entire pensions system. I have a more ambitious aim to do that quicker than we had originally envisaged. I know matters are complicated and we must get a new IT system to put that new platform on. However, we are going to work exceptionally hard over the coming months to ensure the total contribution system model comes in, as soon as is physically possible, to address the issue of the pension gender division raised by the Deputy.

The people who are affected by this are not the most vulnerable pensioners we have. If they were, they would qualify for a non-contributory pension at €233 per week. That does not excuse the fact there are still people getting less than they potentially could have or would have expected. We are going to address it in the overall total contribution model which we will move to as soon as we physically can. We will have to have some public consultation around that to ensure we use the right platform and there is a large awareness of what we are moving towards when it comes in for new entrants in 2020.

I am interested in the Deputy’s view on precarious employment, banded hours contracts and the low-paid in insecure situations. I have said that one of my priorities is that legislation in this area is drafted and published before Christmas. I have an ambition to bring it to the House before Christmas. I met with ICTU which expressed its views in strong terms. I agree 100% with its suggestions. I also met with IBEC but I do not 100% agree with the concerns it raised. Our job as a Parliament is to introduce legislation which protects the most vulnerable people. That is what we are going to do and my aim is to do that before Christmas with the Opposition's help.

When I got this job, I was under the impression there were significant amounts of social insurance receipts not being paid by particular employers. It is not as large as I would have thought originally, however. I will extend the rights that exist in the social insurance scheme to all self-employed people, so they enjoy the same social insurance rights as employees. I know this is an issue Senator Butler has been championing since the first day he got here in 2011. With this particular legislation and other matters we are considering, I will ensure the rights of those self-employed who work for somebody else will be enshrined in legislation to ensure they enjoy the same employment rights, terms and conditions as an employee does. Having said that, there is still something inside me that says it is not fair to allow employers, particularly sectorial small employers who are employing contractors, to not pay some sort of social contribution towards those. To that end, I recently had an interesting discussion with the Revenue Commissioners and we will work on that. If the Deputy has any ideas how we can address this, I would be interested in hearing them. This is not off the table. It is definitely a work in progress for me.

Deputy Brady spoke about the gender pensions issue too. As I said, it will be addressed in the overall reform of our pensions system with regard to moving to the total contribution method. He alluded to the fact they were the most vulnerable people. In actual fact, that is not necessarily the case. As I said, if they were, they would be entitled to a non-contributory pension of €233 per week.

The transition from when people retire to when they go on to a pensionable age does not just affect people who are 65. There are many people who are older who are on the live register. Our ambition is not to put them on the register. It was the Parliament which made the decision several years ago to extend the pensionable age from 65 to 66.

I believe everyone is aware that we will move to an age of 67 in a number of years and then on to an age of 68 by the 2020s. That decision was democratically accepted by the Parliament and we are not going-----