Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I will not delay the House on this issue. This is an interesting change. There may be people who do not have the required number of contributions and the Minister is, through this change, allowing them to purchase extra contributions to bring them up to the required number. She is in effect allowing them to make a voluntary contribution. I do not believe there would be a huge level of take-up of this provision. The information I have is that there was a lengthy lead-in period in respect of this change and that, therefore, a huge number of people will not be affected. As I understand it, the period involved is some 15 years.

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