Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The Social Welfare Appeals Office upheld the decision of the Department. Officials provided the information in good faith in 1989 and 1995, confirming that 260 contributions were required. However, it was not made clear that these should be at the full rate, which they were not, and therefore did not qualify as payments towards a full pension. That should have been made clear when the information was provided. The procedures have now been changed and such cases are isolated, this being the only such case that has arisen. It was agreed to pay a pension in the interests of fairness because the individual concerned thought he had qualified for a pension on the basis of the information given. When we receive a request for information, customers are now provided with a copy of their insurance record to facilitate pension entitlements. The danger is that people want forecasts, which is a separate issue. We provide the full insurance record and the method used to calculate it. This eliminates the possibility of a recurrence of what happened in this case.

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