Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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185. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason a person could be refused a full pension after returning to live in Ireland from the UK. [6341/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To qualify for the State Pension (Contributory), a person must have entered the social insurance system before their 56th birthday and have a minimum of 520 paid contributions. If they have not reached this minimum requirement with Irish and British contributions combined, they will not qualify for a State Pension (Contributory) payment.

The rate at which a person is paid can depend on a number of factors. For the yearly average (YA) method, they may receive less than the maximum payment if they have an average of 47 contributions, paid or credited, for each year that they have been in insurable work. Under the interim Total Contributions Approach (TCA), a total of 2080 contributions, paid or credited, is required for the maximum payment.

Social Insurance contributions made in Britain can be added to a person's record in Ireland under both methods of calculation and this information is requested during the application process.

If a person qualifies for a payment, but not at the full rate, the most likely reason is they do not have enough social insurance contributions on their record.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.