Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister but, with respect, it is hard for those women who have been denied their pension entitlements to take all that he has said at face value given that actions taken by this and the previous Government, rather than addressing the inequalities in the pension-pay gap, have only allowed them to deepen. In 2012, the previous Government introduced changes to the eligibility criteria for the contributory State pension. That had the effect of increasing the number of PRSI contributions required for the higher payments and women are most likely to lose out because of periods out of the workforce due to family responsibilities or having held part-time employment.

Of the 36,000 people the Department of Social Protection records as being affected by the changes from June 2016, more than 62% were women. Will the Government reverse the 2012 changes to pension contributions? As budget 2018 approaches, I remind the Minister that women benefit less from cuts to income tax as they are more likely to find themselves in part-time and low-paid jobs and take time out from work for unpaid care responsibilities. The priority in the upcoming budget should lie in investment in public services and any tax cuts need to be in the form of progressive taxation that will benefit women and men equally.

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