Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If I go off script just for one second, I will be murdered.

We are all aware - I know that it looks like I am blue in the face - but perhaps 99% of the people of the country have still not heard us say we are moving to a new model, to which I hope we will move in 2020. We will undertake a public consultation process, from the end of this month or the beginning of December, when everybody's view and input will be vital because, as Deputy Niamh Smyth's colleague will be aware, there will be winners and losers in the new model. Every Member of the House will have to help sell the new model, as otherwise it will not work. That is where we are going.

I often wonder why - I can say this to Deputy Niamh Smyth because she knows that I am not being smart - this issue only seems to affect women, but they are the only ones about whom we seem to have been concerned for the past couple of weeks. I am referring to women who stayed at home to mind their children. I know that they did, but 38% of those affected are poor fellows who either stayed at home to mind their children or went to college or to England to work and they are equally as affected by the anomaly.

What my officials and I needed to do in the past couple of weeks was to look at the 36,000 people who were affected by the anomaly and where they were affected, if the Deputy knows what I mean. Did some of the women in question work for only one year before they went home? Did some of the gentlemen go to England in the 1970s or the 1980s? I needed to know exactly what the circumstances were in order that whatever decision was made to rectify the anomaly would not fix 10,000 cases and leave 26,000 unfixed. If we can do something today, it has to be to fix the cases of all those concerned and, while fixing them, not to create another problem for those currently receiving 85% of a pension payment for reasons other than band changes. If we were to introduce a disregard, for argument's sake, we would have to have a valid argument as to why the Minister could introduce a disregard for one group and not another.

When we make the full report available, it will be clear whether we can do anything in the short term, what it is and how much it will cos. If we cannot, perhaps we might look at the budgetary process as we move forward towards total contributions to see whether we could do something. I can assure Deputy Niamh Smyth - she has had women coming to her constituency clinics no more than I have have for the past few years - that we will fix this. I would like to think we would fix it sooner rather than later, but I am adamant that we will fix it.

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