Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 348: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his policy in relation to the backdating of credits for the purposes of calculating pension entitlement for those women who were forced to leave their posts as part of the old marriage rule; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13966/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The social welfare pension rights of those who take time out of the workforce for caring duties are protected by the homemaker's scheme which was introduced in and took effect from 1994. The scheme allows up to 20 years spent caring for children or incapacitated adults to be disregarded when a person's social insurance record is being averaged for pension purposes. However, the scheme will not of itself qualify a person for a pension. The standard qualifying conditions, which require a person to enter insurance 10 years before pension age, pay a minimum of 260 contributions at the correct rate and achieve a yearly average of at least 10 contributions on their record from the time they enter insurance until they reach pension age, must also be satisfied.

Women who left the workforce through the operation of the marriage bar were, in the main, public servants who were never insured for social welfare pension purposes. A person whose only contributions were at the modified rate paid by public servants up until 1995 will not benefit from the homemaker's scheme as such contributions did not include cover for contributory pensions. Accordingly, any loss of pension rights in their case relates more to their occupational position rather than social welfare pension entitlements.

It is estimated that there are some 47,000 people who are not receiving a social welfare pension payment in their own right, or as a qualified adult on the pension of their spouse or partner. These include people affected by the marriage bar, public servants in general, self-employed people who were close to retirement or had retired before 1988, when the self-employed were brought within the social insurance system, together with their spouses.

The issues in relation to this group will be discussed in the forthcoming Green Paper on pensions. Decisions regarding pension provision for them will be made in the context of the framework for long-term pensions policy which will be developed after the Green Paper has been published and a consultation process has been completed.