Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

There are no figures available for the total numbers who left the general public service as a result of the marriage bar. According to the Department of Finance 1,240 marriage gratuities were paid between 1962 and 1973. There is no information on periods before that so the total affected across the whole public service is multiples of that figure.

The National Women's Council has announced its intention to take a discrimination case against the State in respect of the continuing effects of this bar. It will focus on women's pension entitlements within the social welfare system and suggest that the numbers receiving reduced rate contributory payments and the number relying on means-tested non-contributory payments are related to the operation of the marriage bar. That may be a factor in some people receiving reduced rate payments but the fragmented nature of our social welfare system until the late 1980s and 1990s, when it changed in respect of self-employment and part-time work, and the workforce participation of women in general are probably greater factors in this regard.

The group in question was never insured for social welfare pension purposes as at the time public servants were insured at modified rates which did not give any entitlement to contributory social welfare pensions. It is estimated that 88% of women over 66 years of age receive support through the social welfare pension system either in their own right or as qualified adults on the pensions of their spouses or partners. Under this Bill the qualified adult increases will be made directly to the spouse or partner of a new State pension claimant. That change will be welcome.

I am anxious to see as many people as possible qualify for social welfare pensions in their own right and have introduced a range of measures in pursuit of that policy such as the reduction of the minimum yearly average required to qualify for a contributory pension from 20 to ten, the introduction of pro rata pensions, and the P53 pensions. The arguments in this area have focused on the question of also backdating the home-makers scheme which is an aspect of this discussion.

Not to disappoint Deputy Penrose, the Green Paper on pensions will consider all those who, for one reason or another, are outside the welfare system. A total of 68,000 women receive contributory pensions in transition and 45,000 receive them at reduced rates, 49,000 receive the non-contributory pension, and more than 88% of women over the age of 66 receive supports through the social welfare system. That translates into 230,000 women receiving support with some 31,000 outside the system. I am advised that providing a full rate pension to this group would cost more than €300 million plus the cost of increasing the pensions of those on reduced rates. Many of these women have come back into pensions having moved into other employment and contributed for ten years or more thus qualifying themselves for contributory pensions. Many may be covered by the figures for those who already qualify for non-contributory pensions. The figure of 88% is the most accurate I can give the House.

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