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

I reassure the House that the 67,000 pensioners who received a smaller pension due the change in the rate bands will have the issue rectified in the coming months. We had a lengthy discussion about it on Question Time this morning. It will happen between now and March of next year. There are a considerable number of people, just under 90,000, who are in receipt of a non-contributory pension, the vast majority of whom are the people the Deputy has described. There is no discrimination, alienation or non-recognition of the contribution those people made to rearing their families and to the State. The vast majority of them are women and they are in receipt of a non-contributory pension because they did not have enough or any contributions.

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