Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make a quick couple of points. For clarification, the particular measure on voluntary contributions which I acknowledge was accepted by the Minister, related to all people and they will have a period of five years in which they can make voluntary contributions following their last previous contribution. I was thinking especially of women returning to the workplace in that context, but it may be of use to many. With regard to the question of refunds and moving on, there are sectors that are getting a refund. The building and banking industries are able to write off current profits against previous losses.

I will now focus on the Bill and will be brief. I again express my regret on the measure around child benefit. I am concerned about it and I look forward to seeing the regulations but I feel that element of the Bill is wrong-headed. I acknowledge that the Minister has accepted my amendment on voluntary contributions and thank the Minister for that. It was important and will make a very practical difference in many people's lives in Ireland, particularly those of women, and is some small gesture towards starting to address our gender pension gap. It was unfortunate that we were not able to move forward on the homemaker's credit in this budget and I expect that we will. The homemaker's credit system that we currently have - the homemaker's disregard system - means there are people, predominantly women, in Ireland who have made 520 contributions, that is, have made the full number of required contributions and who are still not receiving a full contributory pension due to a trick of technicality. There is a huge issue of unfairness. The fact that it is expensive is no justification for not addressing it and it is a damaging issue of trust. This leads me to my more substantive concern. It is very unfortunate that Members did not have the opportunity today to discuss and move forward in taking action on the shocking situation with the Independent News and Media pension fund. My proposals would have been a way of doing that and I regret they were found to be out of order. I am surprised that amendment No. 3 was deemed not relevant to the subject of the Bill since its subject was the subject of the Bill. I want to highlight some key concerns. In that amendment, I simply proposed a well-tested model from the UK which would ensure that solvent companies-----