Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the House for facilitating my presence here and I thank Senator Collins for raising this issue. As she will be aware, the contributory State pension is funded from the Social Insurance Fund through contributions paid by workers and employers. To qualify for this payment, a person must have 520 contributions, which is the equivalent of ten years of paid contributions.

The rate of payment reflects the number of social insurance contributions paid over a working life.

The State pension contributory system gives significant recognition and support to those whose work history includes extended periods outside of paid employment, often to care or to raise families, frequently in full-time caring roles, many of whom are the women the Senator has just spoken about. This is done through PRSI credits and pension caring schemes, which depend on the method upon which a pension is calculated.

The homemaker scheme applies under the yearly average calculation method and home caring periods are used under the total contributions approach. Both the homemaker scheme and home caring periods allow up to a maximum of 20 years spent caring for children under 12 or other dependent relatives to be included in the relative calculation. Since January 2024, long-term carer's contributions can be awarded to a person who has cared for an incapacitated person for a period of 20 years or 1,040 weeks or more. These contributions can be used in the calculation of the individual's State pension contributory entitlement. This is done by attributing the equivalent of a paid contribution to long-term carers of incapacitated dependants to cover gaps in contribution records.

For those who do not qualify for a contributory State pension or only qualify for a reduced contributory pension based on their social insurance records, the non-contributory pension is available. The non-contributory pension is a means-tested social assistance payment for people aged 66 years or over who habitually reside in the State. As with all other social assistance schemes, payments are based on an income need. The combination of both the contributory and non-contributory pensions means that no person without a viable income need is disadvantaged within the State pension system.

Regarding women working on family farms, there are legislative provisions in place that allow for social insurance contributions to be paid, recognising that family members regularly support one another in businesses or other enterprises, including family farming. These include farm partnerships and family businesses incorporated as limited companies. In the case of farm partnership, where two or more family members, which includes spouses or civil partners, operate a business, including farming, as a partnership and share the profits, each business partner is insurable as a self-employed contributor provided that each partner earns €5,000 or more in a contribution year. Provision also exists for people to have their partnership recognised retrospectively on provision of appropriate evidence that a commercial partnership existed for the period in question. When a partnership is recognised retrospectively, both partners incur liability to pay self-employed PRSI for the years in question.

The legislative provisions concerning family employment and social insurance coverage achieve the necessary balance between operating a formal, uniform system and the need to take account of informal and varied practicalities that are inherent in family farms and other family-operated enterprises. However, I take the Senator's point on spreading this information. I will work with the Department to get it this information out there.