Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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595. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent to which her Department has direct contact with other jurisdictions with which a bilateral arrangement for social welfare exists with particular reference to the need to ensure a smooth and expeditious process in dealing with claims particularly in which contributions in two or more jurisdictions arise; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47209/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Ireland has negotiated Bilateral Social Security Agreements with a number of counties. The main purpose of these Agreements is to protect the pension rights of people who have worked and paid social security contributions in Ireland and the countries with which Ireland has such agreements. This is achieved by allowing reckonable social security contributions paid in one or more of these countries to be aggregated with Irish full-rate social insurance contributions for the purposes of qualifying for certain contributory payments in Ireland or in these countries.

Liaison arrangements are in place with the relevant authorities of the countries with which Ireland has Social Security Agreements, for the transmission or request of information, in order to compile the full extent of a claimant’s insurance record.

If the Deputy is referring to a particular case and provides my office with details of it, I will have the matter examined.