Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will revise the formula whereby old age pensions are based on a combination of contributions, EU or non EU, with a view to ensuring that claimants have access to the equivalent of the full rate applicable here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20831/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Where a person has social insurance contributions from another EEA country, or a country with which Ireland has a bilateral agreement, these can be combined with Irish social insurance contributions to qualify a person for a pro-rata contributory state pension. The manner in which contributions from EEA countries are to be used is laid down in Regulation (EEC) No 1408/ 71 and the same general principles are applied in the reciprocal agreements Ireland has with a number of other countries.

These Regulations provide that where the conditions required by the legislation of a country for entitlement to old age benefits are satisfied only after counting the contributions made in another country, the first country shall firstly calculate the amount of pension the person would be entitled to if s/he had completed his/her full career of periods of insurance under the legislation of that country.

Then a proportional pension is calculated by multiplying the theoretical amount of pension by the ratio of periods of insurance in that State to the person's full career. The objective of the system is, amongst other things, to ensure that the contributions made in each country are adequately recognised.

Those qualifying for pensions under this system will, more than likely, qualify for a pension from other jurisdictions, some of whose pension arrangements are more advantageous than those which exist here.

It is also, of course, open to a person living in Ireland to apply for a State Pension (Non-Contributory) if their total contributory pension entitlement is very much reduced and they will receive a payment if they satisfy a means test.