Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire go dtí an Teach seo ar maidin fosta. The Minister is very welcome. I join the Cathaoirleach in congratulating her on her nomination and in wishing her every success in her post. As the Cathaoirleach said, we look forward to seeing her here on a regular basis.

I wish to ask the Minister about pensions and pensioners. Thousands of pensioners, mainly women, are losing large amounts of money from their pension due to changes made to the State pension eligibility rules in 2012. Figures provided by the Department of Employment and Social Protection show that of the 36,000 people affected by these changes, over 65% are women. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has called for a review of the welfare policy from a gender perspective and it appears to have a point. A pension gap of 28% exists between men and women, meaning that women on the State pension are getting approximately €88 less than their average male counterpart.

One of the main reasons women are losing out is changes made by the previous Government in 2012 to amend the eligibility criteria for a contributory State pension by introducing an averaging rule to calculate the number of contributions made by a worker, thus making it more difficult to qualify for a full State pension. The changes clearly and unfairly punish women who took time out of work to care for and rear their children. This is because the current generation of pensioners get no benefit from the homemaker's scheme, which allows for top-ups to State pension payments for those taking time out of the workforce to care for their children. The previous Government claimed to have protected the State pension but this would seem to indicate that the latter is clearly not the case. Many thousands of pensioners have seen their pensions cut dramatically and have lost out on substantial sums of money as a result of that decision. Under the old system, if a person had an average of 20 contributions a year, he or she would be entitled to €228.70. After 2012, this dropped to €198.60, a cut of over €30 per week. Those entitled to a full pension were unaffected but large numbers of those who had been in line for smaller pensions lost out. On average, retired workers have lost more than €1,500 per year but women took the biggest hit, widening the already unequal pension gap.

I call on the Deputy Doherty, as a woman and as a Minister, to consider this issue and the unfairness relating to it and to restore fairness to women who have done the State great service, as I am sure she would agree, and deserve much better.