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

The overall concern in recent years has been to protect the value of weekly social welfare pension rates. Annual expenditure on pensions is approximately €7 billion and is increasing at an approximate rate of €200 million, or €1 billion every five years. Maintaining the rate of the State pension and other payments is critical in protecting people from poverty in old age. A number of changes in recent years had an impact on whether a person could qualify for a contributory pension, based on his or her paid contributions, and on the rate bands for new pensioners with a yearly average of less than 40 contributions. The changes to the rate bands have had no impact on the position of people who would have qualified for a full-rate contributory pension prior to the introduction of these changes, as long as they meet the minimum number of 520 contributions required. Such people continue to qualify for the full-rate pension. The changes to the rate bands affected the rate of pension payable to some new pensioners who qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension. It is important to note that no pensioners have had their pensions reduced, but some new pensioners receive pensions at rates less than they would have received prior to the changes.

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