Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1847. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will outline the process by which his Department contacts the British work and pensions department seeking contribution information about people who have made applications to his Department based on their British contributions; the current average waiting times for this information to be received; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43513/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Under the social security arrangements between Ireland and the United Kingdom, the respective authorities exchange social insurance record details for long- and short-term benefit claims.

If a UK social insurance record is required, a request is sent via an electronic platform used across EU/EEA/UK, that has been approved for the transfer of social insurance records.

Requests regarding customers who have not yet reached pension age are processed by the HMRC. While requests regarding customers who have reached pension age or are deceased are processed by the Department of Work and Pensions.

At present, the current approximate wait time for fully completed replies from the UK vary significantly, some might come back in 6-8 weeks, while others might be 6 months. This timeframe can be lengthened if supplementary queries are received from HMRC/DWP and may also be affected by HMRC/DWP staffing resources, others may take a prolonged period, due to incomplete information and complexities of identifying older records all of which are outside the control of my Department.

My Department is in contact on an ongoing basis with the UK authorities regarding the exchange of information between the two Jurisdictions to ensure applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.