John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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64. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the actions she is taking to address the ongoing discrimination against over 35,000 older persons in the calculation of their State pension payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46704/17]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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78. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when the budget 2012 changes to pension contribution bands will be reverted back to four bands as per pre-2012; when repayments will be made to those persons adversely affected by these changes since September 2012 and to date in 2017 in view of the recent passing of a Fianna Fáil motion on correcting pension inequities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46542/17]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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79. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to ensure pension equality by removing the band changes made to the way in which pensions are calculated and reducing the number of contributions needed to qualify for the State pension from 520 to 260; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46798/17]

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister may be aware, last December Sinn Féin brought forward a motion to address pension inequality for more than 35,000 older people, 68% of whom are women. What specific actions have been taken since then to address the inequality in the pension system?

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 64, 78 and 79 together as they all relate to the same issue. I can give the Deputy the very long version or I can just give him the short version that I have already given. The Deputy is able to see the long version, which tells him exactly what we have done, where we are moving to in terms of the total contributions model and details the public consultation to which I have already referred in response to earlier questions.

In terms of action by my Department in the past couple of weeks, we are collecting the data of the tens of thousands of people who have had their situation exacerbated by the changes that were made in 2012. The reason for the length of time it is taking to collect that data is that all of our records prior to 1994 are paper records. They are not on the computer system which means we could not just do a data search. We had to go through all of the manual records. I wanted to ensure that when I sit down to figure out how we are going to fix this, the information in the report in front of me would be 100% accurate and I would know exactly who the 36,000 people are, what their circumstances are and what I need to do to fix matters. If we make a change, I want to know how many of the 36,000 it would affect and how many it would leave behind, so that we can make an informed choice. What I will not do is fix things for 20,000 people and leave 16,000 behind or fix things for 30,000 and leave 6,000 behind. We need to make sure that whatever changes we make address the anomaly in its entirety. It is also really important that we do not introduce a fix that causes an issue in some other area. I cannot be 100% sure about that when we sit down to deliberate unless I have all of the information so that is what is currently being compiled. We had a meeting yesterday evening and that process is very close to being finished. I would expect to be able to have a conversation with my officials before the end of the week and get that full report. I will bring that to Cabinet next week so that we can make decisions about what we can do.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for her reply. I am not going to rehash everything that has been said about the approximately 36,000 older people directly affected but the changes that were introduced in 2012 were not brought in blindly in terms of the impact they would have, particularly on women. That information was available then, although there was no debate in here on it. The debate on the issue was guillotined in this Chamber and the changes were brought in with full knowledge of the negative consequences of same.

These people have suffered long enough. It is now time to end the inequality within the pension system. I welcome the review that is ongoing and I understand why it is a lengthy process in terms of compiling the data. In the next few weeks we will be dealing with the Social Welfare Bill. Before the recess a motion was passed which received support from all parties except for those in government. What action will be taken following that motion? The Social Welfare Bill will be debated in the House in the coming weeks. The Minister will have all of the data by then and will have an ideal opportunity to address the serious discrimination that exists in the pension system.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is probably correct in saying that when the changes were introduced in 2012 their impact was probably known. I would go further than that. The authors of the pensions report from 2010 knew what the impact would be on particular women. It was an issue that was known on paper but which probably did not manifest itself fully until the women started to come to the office of Deputy Niamh Smyth, to my office and that of Deputy John Brady.

I cannot be as ambitious as Deputy Brady because in order to fix this in the Social Welfare Bill next week, we collectively need to find tens of millions of euro. There was no spare change in Sinn Féin's alternative budget or in anyone else's budget in this House to allow us to include it in this year's Social Welfare Bill. I cannot give a commitment that we will fix this next week or the week after until I know the scale of the problem. However, I can give a commitment that, whatever the scale of the problem, we will fix it. If I cannot do it in this year's budget - and to be very honest, I cannot see how I can - then we will be talking about it in the parameters of next year's budget. We are going to fix it but I will make it the responsibility of everybody in this House to help to fix it and not to use it as an issue. We have already had the debate about whose fault it is, why we cannot fix it now and so on. We need to speak clearly, respectfully and honestly to the people at home who are listening about the fact that this is not a case of just finding a few bob. A sizeable amount of money needs to be found to fix this anomaly and I am not sure that such an amount is just sitting around with no earmark on it. That said, I am going to fix it and will need the help of everybody in this House to make sure it remains a priority. I look forward to hearing Deputy Brady's response to the review next week and to hearing how he thinks we can fix this.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I am not sure if the Minister actually read Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission. While we did not have any loose change at the end of it, we did put forward specific measures to address this serious problem which affects more than 35,000 older people. Our submission proposed reversing the changes that were introduced in 2012. That is a specific measure that could be implemented straight away, rather than kicking this issue down the road further, in terms of carrying out public consultation and so forth. A public consultation process is of no consolation to those affected. What they want is the pension payments to which they would have been entitled prior to these changes being implemented in 2012.

The Social Welfare Bill gives an ideal opportunity to address this discrimination. I put it to Fianna Fáil, which brought forward a nearly identical motion to the Sinn Féin one that was brought forward in December, that now is the opportunity to put its money where its mouth is. It is not good enough bringing forward these motions. If this is not addressed in the Bill by the Minister, I will be putting forward amendments. I hope Fianna Fáil will support those amendments to bring about the end of this discrimination, rather than kicking it further and further down the road and increasing the number of older people affected, which is currently 35,000.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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First, the Deputy must have misunderstood me earlier. There will be no public consultation on this anomaly. We know what we need to do to fix it and we will do it. The public consultation is in regard to probably the most progressive changes we will be making as a State to our total pension contribution system, which will see sweeping changes in 2020. There is absolutely not a chance in hell that one would make the changes we are proposing to make without a public consultation.

Second, the Deputy might go back to check his party's budget proposal. Sinn Féin did not fix it; it decided to fix it over the next three years. The Deputy should not talk about kicking a can down the road when his party decided in its budget proposal that it would introduce a bit of the payment this year, a bit next year and a bit the year after. That is kicking it down the road.

Let me very clear. I am not playing politics on this issue. This is an anomaly that is affecting 36,000 Irish citizens, many of whom have come to our offices because they feel disrespected and feel their dignity has been taken from them. We are going to fix it and we are going to fix it as soon as I possibly can fix it. That is the only guarantee I can give the Deputy until I have the full report in front of me.