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

As I recall it, the legislation that was introduced in this House in October 2018 was accepted without amendment by every Member and party in this House. I took it from the unanimity that existed at the time that Deputies were content with the approach that was being taken. While there are people who have not got an uplift as a result of this approach to making an amount of money people available to people through their pensions, I remind the House that these payments are based on people's contribution histories. We cannot give someone a contribution history that he or she does not have. The 20-year home-caring credit we introduced into the total contribution approach in 2012 is probably the most generous home-caring credit across Europe, rightly so because it is deserved. If the perspective the Deputy is coming from is one that advocates a universal pension, I think that is an entirely different conversation for us to have. This is the State contributory pension. This is absolutely the fairest way of working out a person's contributions without using the averaging model. That is the model we employed from the legislation in 2012.

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