Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for his presence. As he will probably be aware, 86,000 people are awaiting a decision on their entitlement to an increase in the State contributory pension.These people have lost out financially due to a decision made by the Government in 2012. Most of them are women who took time out to look after and rear their children.

I understand that a review is under way in relation to the post-budget 2012 band rates. While I welcome the review, I am disappointed to learn that as of 8 March 2019, only 4,254 reviews have been completed out of a total of almost 90,000. That is less than 4%. It is disappointing to learn of such slow progress. Fianna Fáil has pushed the Government hard to address the anomaly in the contributory State pension scheme which resulted in people losing out financially. These changes have resulted in thousands of people losing out on entitlements they thought they would get in their full State pension. While the good news is that the review is under way, progress is disappointingly slow. I appreciate fully that there is a significant job of work to do here. I also acknowledge that some additional staff recruitment has taken place in the Department to carry out the review. However, notwithstanding the fact that the commitment to undertake the review was made 15 months ago in 2018, only 4% of the 90,000 reviews are complete. That is very disappointing.

As I said earlier, people, most of whom are women, have lost out financially due to the measures adopted by the Government in 2012. They have lost a great deal of money for no other reason than that they took time out to rear their children. The additional delay adds to what they have lost already and is very disappointing for many. Many people have contacted me to express their disappointment and, indeed, anger at the continuing delay. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, can tell me today how the review is progressing, when he expects it to be completed and when people can expect to receive renewed payments in the form of increases in the State contributory pension.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this important matter and for his continued interest in the area. Since late September 2018, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has been examining the social insurance records of approximately 90,000 pensioners who were born on or after 1 September 1946 and who have a reduced rate State pension contributory entitlement based on the post-budget 2012 rate bands. These payments are being reviewed under a new total contributions approach to pension calculation, which includes provision for home-caring periods. The reviews commenced on 13 February 2019, the day after the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, signed the regulations required, together with provisions in the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registrations Act 2018, to permit the increased payments to be made. As of 28 March 2019, 11,646 reviews have been completed. Of these, over 8,850 have resulted in an increased payment for the pensioners concerned. Pensioners who did not qualify for an increase in payments will continue to receive their existing weekly rate. As such, nobody will lose out as a result of this review.

The Minister has stated from the outset that it will take a number of months to complete all the reviews due to the numbers involved and the individual nature of social insurance records. In some cases, it is necessary to engage in correspondence with a pensioner in order to clarify contribution histories and periods of caring and work. To date, over 34,000 requests for information have issued to pensioners. In order to process these reviews, 121 temporary staff members have been recruited to the Department's offices in the north west. Regardless of when a review is conducted, the person's rate of payment will be adjusted without delay where an increase in payment is due and arrears will be issued, backdated to 30 March 2018 or the pensioner's 66th birthday, if later. Where a person's rate does not increase following a review, the person will continue to receive their existing rate of payment. Given the scale of the work, which involves 90,000 pensioners, the fact that each case requires close individual examination and that some cases are more complex than others, it is not be reasonable to expect all reviews to be processed immediately. While this work will take a number of months to complete, it will continue until all pensioners have been notified of the outcomes of their reviews in writing. The Minister urges anyone who has yet to provide additional requested information to the Department to do so as soon as possible so that his or her review can be processed.

Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response. I welcome that some progress has been made with an increase on the 4,254 figure I gave to 11,646. I welcome also and accept that 121 temporary staff members have been recruited to tackle this job. That said, it will continue to be a time-consuming and slow process.Can the Minister of State, give me, or more important, the pensioners concerned any indication of timeframe as to when the Department expect this review to be to be completed? I will not hold him to the last day.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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As stated in the reply, the Minister said it would take a number of months. Some 34,000 people have been written to and he is anxious that they would respond, if they have not done so already. Where a pensioner is awarded an increase, it will be backdated to 30 March 2018 or the person's 66th birthday, if later than that, and arrears will be paid, which is important.

Following the Government decision in 2018, work began on the significant system changes and legislative requirements to cater for new measures. A system change was delivered in November 2018 and January 2019, in time for reviews to commence from 13 February 2019. Reviews began the day after the Minister signed the necessary regulations, which together with the provisions in the Social Welfare Pensions and Registration Act 2018 allowed the increase in payments to be made. In September 2018, work began on identifying people to be reviewed and examining social insurance records of those born on or after 1 September 1946 who have a reduced contributory pension element. Because of this work, not all of those reviewed will need to provide additional information, which makes the process as easy as possible.

The Minister said that the first payments would be made in the first quarter of 2019. This has been achieved and work on reviews will continue until all the reviews that have been completed over the coming months.

Gerard Craughwell (Independent)
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I thank the Minister for State.