Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A change was made by the previous Government whereby the minimum number of contributions rose from 260 to 500. This had a devastating impact. As far as I can see, it is always women who are affected and there are no men in the category, certainly none who has come to my office. Typically when we look at the PRSI records of women, they have a contribution record which started sometime in their teens. They probably started working before they started to make contributions. In the case of my mother, she started work at 13 years of age. I am not saying she is affected by this because she is not, but she started work at 13 years and many women are in the same boat. The contributions tapered off in their early to mid-20s when they got married and had to leave the workforce. We have a provision in the Constitution - everybody laughs at how out dated it is - which recognises the work of women in the home, but here is an instance where we should be looking at the Constitution and stating the women in question left the workforce, in some case because they were forced to do so, to work in the home which the Constitution praised and supported, yet they find when they reach pension age having worked from a very young age that they lose out big time. Men have not suffered in the same way.

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