P J Sheehan (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 82: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps she will take to facilitate women, forced out of employment due to the marriage rule, to avail of contributory pensions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40662/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is anxious to ensure that as many people as possible can be accommodated within the social welfare pensions system. A state pension (contributory) is available to those who have contributed to the social insurance system while a means-tested state pension (non-contributory) is available to those who have an income need. Over the last 10 years, means tests have been improved and qualifying conditions for contributory payments made easier.

Many women in both the private and the public sectors left employment upon marriage because they were required to or because that was the societal norm at the time.

Public servants who left the workforce through the operation of the marriage bar were not insured for social welfare pension purposes and, therefore, did not contribute to the social insurance system. Accordingly, the loss of pension rights in their case relates more to their occupational position rather than social welfare pension entitlements.

The Government is currently considering the overall pensions system in Ireland and will make final decisions in the context of the long-term framework on pensions which I expect will be published before the end of the year.