Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 976: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his proposals to disregard minimal student work in relation to entry into insurable employment for the purposes of eligibility for retirement or old age pension where same prevents a person from qualifying for pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28343/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The qualifying conditions for contributory old age pensions require a person to have paid at least 260 contributions at the appropriate rate, enter insurance 10 years before pension age and achieve a yearly average of at least 10 contributions paid or credited on their social insurance record from 1953 (when the unified system of social insurance came into effect) or the date of entry into insurance, if later. A person's contribution record may also be averaged from 1979, but only to qualify for a full rate pension, which requires a yearly average of 48 contributions.

Over the years a number of measures have been introduced to enable more people to qualify for contributory pensions. These include a reduction in the average number of contributions required for a minimum payment from 20 to 10 and the introduction of a number of pro rata and special pensions to deal with perceived anomalies in the system.

The qualifying conditions for old age pension purposes were designed to ensure that those qualifying for payment have an adequate and sustained history of contributions to the social insurance fund over their working lives. However, the system of averaging contributions can give rise to varying results, with people with the same total number of contributions receiving different rates of payment, or indeed failing to qualify for any payment, depending on when they commenced paying insurance. People can have significant gaps in their social insurance records for a variety of reasons including years spent in education or caring, emigration, or periods where they were ineligible to contribute because of their income level or they were self-employed.

The Government is committed to producing a Green Paper on pensions as part of the new social partnership agreement Towards 2016 with a view to developing a framework for future pensions policy. The Green Paper will involve a comprehensive examination of the issues associated with our pensions system including those pertaining to social welfare pensions. The operation of the average contributions test and other issues in relation to social welfare pensions will be considered in the context of the Green Paper and the associated consultation process.