Dáil debates

Thursday, 25 November 2021

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Social Insurance

10:20 am

Photo of Brendan SmithBrendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome that this important issue has been covered by the Commission on Pensions and referred to the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands. As we all know, people's insurance contributions can be interrupted for a myriad of reasons. A person may take time off to rear a family or care for a family member. In some instances, a person may have had no opportunity to take up employment. Sometimes people emigrated and their insurance contributions were interrupted. Thankfully, in more recent years people have come back to education and learned new skills to take up employment and resume their insurance contributions.

We need flexibility within the social welfare code to ensure that new and emerging trends are catered for. If people wish to work beyond pension age and make a contribution, they should be able to enhance their record to ensure their pension is improved when they finally decide to stop working. We need to move on these types of issues. I have come across many people whose insurance contribution record was interrupted. They had never relied on the State for assistance and were often hard-working people who did not have the opportunity to remain in employment.

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