Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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9. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection her plans to address the inequality experienced by persons who are in receipt of reduced pensions because of the marriage bar, the effect of which is that they have incomes below the supplementary welfare rate. [33019/15]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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I am delighted to hear that the Tánaiste will be focusing on retired people in the budget. I am hoping she might give special attention to a category of women who are experiencing a discriminatory pension as a result of the marriage bar and an overhang from that situation. One of my constituents said recently that a colleague of hers had applied to pay the property tax to have it deducted from her pension. However, she was told she could not do that because her income could not be brought below €188, yet this woman is expected to live on a pension of €150 because she cannot access a full State pension as a result of the marriage bar.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The marriage bar is a term used to describe a rule that existed in most of the public service and some private sector employments, whereby women were expected to leave their employment upon marriage. The bar was removed when Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973.

Where such employees were in the public service, they paid a modified rate of PRSI. These contributions provided no cover for the State pension and, accordingly, the marriage bar would not have impacted on State pension entitlement. It may, however, have impacted upon their eventual entitlement to a Public Service pension, which is a matter for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

The State pension, contributory, is based on the PRSI contributions paid or credited by the person over their working life, and the level of entitlement depends on their yearly average number of contributions. I was the Minister of State who brought this in together with the then Minister, Michael Woods. From 1994, a homemaker's scheme was introduced where time out of the workforce to care for children, or people with a disability, can be disregarded for the purposes of calculating that yearly average.

Where someone over 66 does not qualify for a full rate contributory pension, they may apply for a non-contributory pension which is based on need and is means-tested. The maximum rate of this pension is €219 weekly. Where it is more beneficial for the person making the claim, they may instead seek an increase for qualified adult payment based on their spouse's State pension contributory, the maximum rate of which is €206.30. This increase is, by default, paid directly to the qualified adult.

Supplementary welfare allowance is a means-tested payment. Any person aged 66 or over is entitled to make a claim for the means-tested State pension non-contributory. The pension is in the first instance paid at a higher weekly rate than the supplementary welfare allowance - €219 rather than €186 - and the means test for the pension is considerably less onerous than that which applies for the supplementary welfare allowance. This means that regardless of circumstances, someone eligible to apply for the State pension non-contributory should receive significantly more than he or she would if he or she claimed the supplementary welfare allowance.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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That is a bit of a minefield for someone to untangle. This person put the case that the pension she was expected to survive on was €150 per week. The Minister is clearly saying-----

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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What age is she?

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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Sixty-six.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Deputy should see whether she could apply for the non-contributory.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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That is something we will explore. The point that was being made was that potentially there were certain anomalies in the system. While welcoming the homemaker's scheme, which the Minister introduced in 1994, she made the point that it excluded people like herself who had to give up their jobs prior to 1973 and that there was an anomaly in the scheme relating to the way PRSI contributions were worked out. I believe that the requirements to get a full contributory pension are that one must have accumulated 500 full PRSI contributions and have worked ten years before reaching the age of 55. This person claims that she meets both of those criteria but that the Department averaged the contributions over a 47-year period which meant that had she never worked prior to her marriage and only worked post-1998, which she did, she would get the full whack but because she worked prior to her marriage, she is being discriminated against. This is certainly an anomaly about which I have not heard an answer but I hear the Minister's point about accessing other revenue somewhere else.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The marriage bar was done away with when Ireland joined the EEC when a range of measures around equality came into law in Ireland. Ireland has the homemaker's credit, which is quite generous and which I was involved in introducing in 1994. This particular lady is entitled to apply for a non-contributory pension. If one looks for an assessment of what would be her best way of maximising what she is receiving, that could be a non-contributory pension which at €219 per week is a significant payment. If the lady has a spouse, she could look to get a qualified adult payment. Again, this is not as high as a full non-contributory weekly pension in her own right. It is a slightly lower rate if her spouse or partner is already claiming a full pension. Perhaps she should talk to somebody in the local social welfare office, look at the history and see whether she would be in a better position if she claimed under a different heading.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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That can be done but none the less, the point remains that if this discrimination is there and if she had never worked prior to the marriage bar and had commenced work in 1998, which she did, she would be entitled to a full pension. That anomaly needs to be addressed in any case.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The issue here, as people are aware from other questions, is that the cost would be a very significant annual cost and we do not as yet have the resources as a country to be in a position to fund what it would cost.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I can get Deputy Joan Collins the reply to Question No. 10, if she bears with me. We have one minute.