Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

As I hate to disappoint the Deputy, I will respond in the manner he expects. Under the current statutory provisions governing the award of credit contributions, recipients of the carer's allowance may be awarded credits if they switch to that payment from another credit bearing payment such as jobseeker's allowance. From April 1999 formal provision has been made for the award of credits to claimants of carer's allowance who have left insurable employment to engage in caring duties.

The recipients of carer's allowance who are not entitled to credits may be eligible for homemaker's disregards which preserve the carer's entitlements for contributory purposes. The homemaker's scheme provides that contribution years spent working in the home while caring on a full-time basis for a child up to 12 years of age or an incapacitated person will be disregarded in calculating a person's yearly average number of contributions for State pension contributory purposes. This provision applies for the contribution year commencing on 6 April 1994 and up to 20 contribution years may be disregarded.

The award of credits is subject to certain conditions. For example, when a person has no paid or credited contributions for two years, he or she cannot be awarded further credits until 26 contributions are paid. In recognition of their caring role, this rule will be waived where claimants of carer's allowance were eligible for homemaker's disregards immediately prior to claiming carer's allowance. In effect, this means credits will be awarded where a person who has a gap of two years in his or her paid or credited contributions was eligible for homemaker's disregards before claiming the carer's allowance. This provision will protect the position of those who do not give up work to become carers but may have qualified for homemaker's disregards due to childbearing duties and subsequently became carers after a two-year period had expired.

The Deputy was ahead of me in noting that the Green Paper on pensions will examine a broad range of issues, including contributions, pension entitlements and averaging. It is intended to publish the document in the middle of April.

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