Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join with the call made here today for the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to be invited to this House to debate the whole issue of women deserving fair State pensions. As has been said, the Minister for Finance has acknowledged that the existing regime has thrown up bonkers results. The people who pay the price are a cohort that is comprised predominantly of women. It tells a tale about our history.

At the time these women, who may have worked earlier in their lives, took time out to look after their children. They did not have much choice in the matter. At the time there was no such thing as child care or subsidies for child care. We also know that the marriage ban in the Civil Service ensured many of them had to leave their jobs.

As a result, even as we speak, there are women entering retirement age who will lose out a portion of their pension every week because of changes that were made in 2012. Clearly, those changes have led to an inequality. Irish society strives to address inequalities all of the time. This inequality is being borne by women.

One can argue that these are the very women who have raised the generations who have made this country what it is today and I think they deserve more. They paid contributions. However, because there was a gap in their service and through the method of calculation, it means that nearly 23,000 women receive less of a pension than they would have been entitled to prior to 2012. Ironically, people with fewer contributions but a more compact span over which they worked will receive a greater pension. That shows a pension is not based on one's contributions.

I very much welcome the honesty shown by the Minister for Finance in acknowledging this situation. We need action and to talk about how we will address the inequality. Every week that passes these women lose money and more women are entering the system all of the time. This pension situation goes to the heart of many of the principles that we have talked about here, but mainly equality. Basically, these women have paid into a system, the rules were changed through no fault of theirs and they have lost out.