Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 391: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of countries with which Ireland has bilateral welfare agreements; if, in all such cases, the procedures are working effectively and efficiently; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24157/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland has concluded bilateral social security agreements with seven countries:Austria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the USA and Switzerland. Ireland also entered into a bilateral understanding with Québec on 1 October 1994. All of these agreements are currently in operation.

The main purpose of these agreements is to protect the social security pension rights of workers who have worked both in Ireland and the other country to which the agreements apply. With Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, they have limited application as the EU regulations apply in most cases.

The bilateral agreements provide for the adding together of periods of insurance and, where appropriate, periods treated as equivalent to periods of insurance, completed in Ireland and the other country involved, for the purposes of calculating and awarding pensions. They also provide that temporarily posted workers may continue for a specified period under the social insurance system of the country in which they were previously insured instead of transferring for a short period into the other country's system.

Liaison procedures have been established with each country and are kept under constant review. Regular contact is made with the appropriate foreign agencies to ensure the smooth transfer of the necessary information required to decide on these types of claims. At present, no significant difficulties are being experienced with any of the agreements.

For all schemes, the time taken to process claims that fall to be examined under bilateral agreements is longer than that for standard Irish entitlements, reflecting the added complexity that arises in determining entitlements under these agreements. While every effort is made to minimise processing times, the overriding objective in dealing with these claims is to ensure that people receive their full entitlements.

I assure the Deputy that delays in processing applications will not result in any losses to pensioners and those who qualify for payment will have their claims backdated fully in accordance with the normal regulations for backdating pension claims. I am satisfied that, overall, the procedures are working effectively and efficiently.