Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the first- and full-year cost of pension provision for foster carers and kinship carers; figures to be given separately. [31200/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Matters relating to foster care and kinship care are the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality.

This Government acknowledges the important role that carers, including kinship and foster carers, play and remains fully committed to supporting them. The State Pension (Contributory) system provides a range of measures to recognise caring periods outside of paid employment, such as PRSI credits, Homemaking Disregards, and HomeCaring Periods to recognise caring periods of up to 20 years outside of paid employment in the calculation of a payment rate.

Kinship and Foster carers are entitled to benefit from these measures on the same basis as other carers and parents. They may qualify if they are in receipt of Child Benefit. If they are not in receipt of Child Benefit, they can still qualify for Homemaker’s Scheme or HomeCaring Periods provided the caring periods are confirmed by Tusla.

Despite these measures, some long-term carers of incapacitated dependents may still face barriers in accessing the State Pension (Contributory), particularly in meeting the minimum requirement of 10 years' paid contributions.

Since January 2024, long-term carer's contributions can be awarded to a person who has cared for an incapacitated person for a period of 20 years or more. These contributions are treated the same as paid contributions for State Pension (Contributory) entitlement only and can be used to fill any gaps in a person's contribution record, including satisfying the minimum 520 contributions required for eligibility.

Kinship and foster carers who have cared for an incapacitated dependent or dependents for over 20 years also benefit from this provision.

The Department does not hold data on the number of foster carers or kinship carers who would have sufficient social insurance contributions to qualify for the State Pension (Contributory), credited contributions and other related information. It is therefore not possible to provide an estimate as requested by the Deputy.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.