Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I accept his answer now that I see the scale of what we are talking about here. If one talks about the impact of people, it is two-fold. It is an impact on women, generally, who started work early and who then took time out to care for a family. If somebody did not work before that person took care of his or her family and then went to work afterwards, in his or her 40s, and did 20 years, it seems unfair that that person is entitled to a bigger pension than somebody who started working at 17 or 18, maybe had a family in his or her 20s, and then went back to work afterwards. That is an anomaly. Similarly, with the volunteer development worker scheme that was introduced on 6 April 1983, I have an example of a constituent who took time out before 1983 to volunteer abroad for a couple of years. That person feels penalised now and is on a lesser pension than if that person had stayed at home. It is a smaller cohort of people, but another anomaly that kicked in once a time date was put on these issues.

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