Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is just not good enough for the Tánaiste to come in here and say that this is a complex issue. What is basically happening is that women in the main and some men are being blatantly discriminated against because they were not in the workforce for a number of years. That is not complex. The years they were not in the workforce are being used to average down their contributions. There is nothing complex about that. It is just pure discrimination. It has got to be fixed. Is the Tánaiste happy for this to pertain indefinitely into the future? Has the Government got a realistic plan?

When my colleague, Deputy O'Dea, who is our spokesperson on this area, questioned the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection earlier this month, he was pointed towards an exercise of total contribution approach. That is not going to solve anything in the short term. I want to get from the Tánaiste a sense as to whether this issue will be addressed. Can she at least commit to addressing it incrementally? She indicated that it may cost up to €60 million, a sum which she then revised upwards to €240 million. How much is it going to cost? It is simply not fair to be discriminating against people who took time out, bearing in mind that the State forced many of them to do so because they were in the civil and public services.

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