Mr. Ciar?n Lawler:

I will start on the credits issue that the Senator mentioned. Certainly, people on carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit get social insurance credits. However, that is contingent on them having a paid contribution within the two years prior to going on that scheme, so the Senator is correct there. When it comes to home caring periods and how they are counted for pension purposes, they are not actual social insurance credits and that is why it has the name that it does. They are periods that have the same effect as having a credit; it is not contingent on a person being on a payment or getting credit on a payment for those purposes.

On the minimum essential standard of living, my understanding – I am open to correction on this – is that the research had direct input in the discussions on living wage. Certainly, as the Senator knows, this Department funds that research. It is now housed as a research centre in the Society of St. Vincent De Paul. It has been hugely influential in some of the budgetary changes and policies that have been introduced. For example, the higher payment for kids over the age of 12 years came directly from that research.

Even though it has moved from the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice it is great that work is continuing into the future.

We can certainly look at the universal pension and try to get a figure for that slice Senator Higgins mentioned, which was uprating to the full rate women who are on the reduced rate. It would also be necessary to include, and I do not know if we have these figure but no doubt we can find them, women who do not have a pension at all. They would have to be part of that slice also. If that is what is required, we will try to figure that out. Certainly the uprating slice-----