Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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179. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the correct amount of social welfare pension, along with departmental pension, payable in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10426/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The person concerned is in receipt of state pension (contributory), with effect from 20 June 2011, at the correct weekly rate of payment. The qualifying conditions for state pension (transition), to which the person concerned originally qualified from June 2010, his 65th birthday, required the applicant to:

- have entered insurable employment before attaining the age of 55 years;

- have at least 260 paid contribution weeks, from employment or self-employment, since entry into insurance; and

- satisfy the yearly average condition.

The person concerned has an overall total of 1,404 reckonable (paid and credited) social insurance contributions. When this total is divided by 49, (the number of years from his date of entry into insurance to the end of the last tax year prior to reaching age 65), his yearly average of 29 contributions gave him an entitlement to a state pension (transition) at 98% of the maximum weekly rate. In order to qualify for a maximum rate pension, a yearly average of 48 or more would be required. The person concerned automatically transferred to state pension (contributory) from his 66^thbirthday on 20 June 2011, at the same weekly rate of payment.