Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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253. 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 where contributions in two or more jurisdictions arise; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54419/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In addition to the general EU regulations governing inter-operability of social welfare entitlements between the 27 member States of the EU, Ireland has also concluded 10 bilateral agreements on social security with countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Quebec, Switzerland, USA, South Korea and Japan. The agreements are limited to certain social welfare benefits and are predominantly pension-related.

The main purpose of these Agreements is to protect the social welfare entitlements 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 efficient transmission or request of information, in order to compile the full extent of a claimant’s insurance record.