Home-makers over 65 may qualify for full old-age pension

Women over the age of 65 who have taken time off work for family reasons may soon qualify for full old-age pensions following a review of the system, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs has announced.

Mr Ahern said the "fundamental reform" of pension qualification conditions, together with proposals in the National Pensions Policy Initiative, would "provide a sound framework for examining pension provision in the new millennium", particularly in regard to home-makers. He was speaking at the publication yesterday of a report on Phase 1 of the review.

Currently an individual's old-age or retirement pension entitlement is calculated on the number of stamps or contributions paid by that person over the course of their working life.

Women who took time off work to rear families have lost out under this system. In 1994 the "disregards" system was introduced. It recorded the time taken off by women to work in the home as a "disregard" contribution. But this did not make allowance for women who had been in work before 1954.

The report proposes to replace the current "disregard" system and to regard time spent running a home as on a par with full employment and as a straightforward "stamps" contribution.

Asked whether the new provisions would be retrospective, a spokeswoman for the Department said this would be examined "in the context of budgetary considerations".

It also recommends a shift from the current yearly-average approach to calculating a person's pension qualification. Instead a person's contribution over their life time would be taken and averaged out.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party leader Quinn, has said all monies accruing to the Government from the DIRT tax hearings should be given to those on social welfare, particularly those reliant on pensions.

The Government's take in respect of DIRT tax currently stands at £63 million and could reach as much as £250 million once AIB and National Irish Bank have paid.

Speaking on RTE Radio's Morning Ireland programme yesterday Mr Ruairi Quinn said the unpaid taxes uncovered by the Public Accounts Committee should go back to the people who were now retired but who had to pay "very high rates of tax because some people, with the aid and abetting of the banking system evaded their responsibility. In main they were people who were fairly well off."

When asked how it would be decided who would get the money and how they would get it, Mr Quinn said it would be a matter for the Government to work out.

"The money that will be collected - and it is of the order of £250 million - should not simply disappear into the overall bag of Revenue. In order to, so to speak, make reparation to the country at large and to the compliant taxpayer it should go to people who at the present time are suffering as a result of inflation," he said.

The ICTU had argued for a once-off payment to compensate those on fixed incomes, he continued, "as a result of the Government's mismanagement of the economy and inflation now nearly at 6 per cent.

"This money could, for example go to people on fixed incomes or in receipt of social welfare payments".

A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said it would not be a matter for the Department to decide how the DIRT money was spent.

One of the proposals put forward in the report from the Public Accounts Committee was that a charitable use be made of the unpaid DIRT tax once the banks had settled their accounts.