Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, I have, and as I committed to Deputy Curran and others, we will bring forward detailed options and proposals for change with the associated costings to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection. If we move from the averaging approach to the total contributions approach, the homemaker credit scheme has to change because the basis on which it exists changes. The intention would be to have those changes in place but not to recalculate the pensions of everyone who is retired. It would cost hundreds of millions of euro which would be prohibitive. The new rules would apply to future pensions. If we were to apply the new rules to people already retired, we would be cutting some pensions too. That is not something I want to do to anyone. I have ruled it out. Under no circumstances will anyone who is already retired have their pension reduced.

Brexit is still a developing picture as Deputy Broughan knows. I want to maintain the arrangement between Britain and Ireland which has been in place for a very long time, that people in Britain are free to work in Ireland and vice versa, that people in Britain are free to claim welfare in Ireland and vice versaand that we recognise each other's social insurance contributions as being the same. Someone who paid ten years' national insurance in Britain and ten years' pay related social insurance, PRSI, in Ireland is paid for 20 years, wherever he or she is. It is possible for us to maintain those arrangements. I am more optimistic about what can be done in respect of people than I am about trade and goods. My focus will be on people.

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