James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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1792. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will review the agreement between Ireland and South Korea concerning pensions, which results in a person being unable to collect contributions upon their departure from their second country; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37354/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The social security agreement between Ireland and the Republic of Korea, which is provided for in the Social Welfare (Agreement With the Republic of Korea on Social Security) Order 2008 (S.I. No. 552 of 2008), enables periods of social insurance completed in Ireland and in the Republic of Korea to be taken into account, where necessary, by either State in order to qualify for certain benefits and pensions.

In effect, this Agreement protects the pension rights of people who have worked and paid reckonable social security contributions in Ireland and in Korea by allowing the person to combine the period of contributions in each country, if necessary, to qualify for a pension payment under either Irish or Korean law.

The Agreement ensures that the contributions paid retain a value, even when the person leaves Korea. For instance, they would be particularly important if the person should need to claim an Irish invalidity pension or survivor’s pension within a few years of returning to Ireland. Similarly, if the person did not have enough Irish contributions for State pension entitlement on reaching pension age, the Korean contributions would be added to their Irish contributions for this purpose.

A key objective of the Agreement is to allow social insurance contributions paid in Ireland and Korea to be aggregated, as necessary, when considering an insured contributor’s entitlement to the range of pensions covered. The return of social security contributions paid in either Ireland or Korea, where the person concerned moves back to their home country, would undermine one of main purposes of this Agreement.

In the circumstances there are no plans to change this situation.