John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

With no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee, I am disappointed that the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, is not present because I wished to pick him up on a couple of specific points he made during his contribution. He spoke about the range of pensions that are available and about Sinn Féin not paying attention or acknowledging the positive aspects of the regime. However, that was not a fair comment. It was disingenuous in response to what Deputy John Brady was trying to do. He was trying to highlight a specific anomaly that exists in respect of the State contributory pension, which primarily affects women. That is the underlying problem. It was very far into the Minister's speech before he recognised the point, but that is the fundamental issue.

It is a matter of fairness and equality. Deputy Brady was correct when he made the point that when the additional bands were introduced it adversely affected women more than anybody else. The concept of averaging is not a fair system. In other words, somebody who enters the workforce as a young person, who takes time out and does not get credits, who re-enters the workforce for the latter part of his or her career has a low average, whereas if somebody only entered the workforce at 45 years of age and worked for 20 years to the age of 65, he or she would have a high average. The averaging system is causing anomalies which are primarily affecting women who have not been able to get credits prior to 1994 and the matter must be addressed.

It is something that was raised in the budget and was discussed on Committee Stage of the Social Welfare Bill. Deputy John Brady is cognisant of the fact. It is an issue of which we will not let go. From a committee point of view next Thursday we will begin an in-depth analysis of pensions, but this area of the pensions sector in particular – the contributory State pension and averaging, which is unfair and does not lead to equality - is something we will examine in considerable detail. The issue is not going away. It is disappointing that the counter-motion tabled by the Government did not at least recognise the crux of the problem that Deputy John Brady was trying to highlight. I do not say the Government had to agree with the motion but it should have been nailed down. We discussed the issue on Committee Stage of the Bill. We have all received representations on the matter and it must be addressed. The problem was compounded by the addition of extra bands in terms of the payment rates.

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