Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here. I want to raise one issue around the farm assist scheme. I welcome the income disregards that have been reintroduced regarding farm assist but the fact that farm assist applicants cannot, or could not, pay PRSI contributions has left many farmers with gaps in their contributory pension. In Mayo, some 50 farmers are affected by this. They had not realised until they went for their pensions that there was a gap and there were no contributions or credits made. I ask the Minister to consider looking at the situation of pensioners who are in this situation and who are now getting much reduced pensions when they thought they would be able to avail of a contributory pension. The alternative would be in making the assessment to disregard the years they have been on farm assist. I ask that the Minister consider this in the future.