Áine Collins (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State's offer and I will certainly take him up on it. This is a complex issue. It often only comes to light when people approach retirement age and it may be difficult for them to check back on their contributions during their working life. We need to deal with the issue in terms of the women who were forced to give up work when the marriage ban was in place as many of those women have reached retirement age. We need to make the process simple and to give people choices. It does not seem fair that the pension contributions of a person who began work at the age of 20, continued working until the age of 32 or 33 and then took a break of 15 or 20 years, are averaged out over the whole of their working life. I appreciate the point the Minister of State made about the scheme allowing for a provision up to 20 years in that respect. If a person only began work at the age of 55, he or she would qualify for a contributory pension on retirement at the age of 65 or 66. There is definitely inequality in the system.

I appreciate the timeline factor in that the budget will be announced next week. The issue is complicated and it needs to be examined and practically-proofed, if I can put it that way. It is a little like the idea of the theory and the practice. We should have a group think-in on it and also include the contribution of some members of society who could assist in this.

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