Barry Heneghan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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168. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 99 of 22 October 2025, if he will review again the case of a person (details supplied); the reason the publicly available guidance on Gov.ie and Citizens Information states that the homemaker’s scheme “can help you qualify for the State Pension (Contributory)”, when his official reply to the Parliamentary Question states that homemaker’s disregard and home caring periods cannot be used to meet the minimum full-rate contribution requirement; if he will clarify the way in which citizens were expected to understand this distinction; if, in light of this ambiguity, he will instruct his Department to conduct a senior-level review of this case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68354/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is committed to ensuring that the information it provides is accurate, easy to understand and helpful to those trying to access their entitlements. I have arranged for a review of the explanations and phrasings used on the Department’s website and the Citizens Information website.

The Pension Caring Supports offered by my Department incorporates three distinct schemes each with their own qualifying conditions and each having different impacts on an individual's state pension contributory entitlement.

When calculating the yearly average contributions over an individual's working life for the assessment of pension entitlement, the homemakers scheme allows for the disregard of years spent caring. The home caring Periods scheme awards credited contributions to fill gaps in the contribution records of those who remained out of insurable employment during periods of providing care. These credited contributions or disregards can help improve the rate of pension entitlement. For these credits or disregards to be reckonable for state pension contributory purposes, an individual must first satisfy the other qualifying conditions of the scheme, including having the minimum number of 520 full rate paid contributions for the standard state pension and 260 for the mixed insurance pension.

The third scheme, the long-term carers contributions scheme, awards the equivalent of paid contributions when a person is awarded long term carers contributions for a minimum of 1,040 weeks (20 years). These contributions can be used to qualify for a pension or to fill gaps in an individual’s contribution record to improve the rate of their pension.

In relation to the state pension contributory entitlement of the person concerned, the relevant legislation was applied correctly when assessing their entitlement. The records of my Department show that the person concerned has 63 full-rate paid contributions and did not meet the minimum number of full rate contributions required to qualify for state pension contributory.