Report to look at paying pensions to missionaries

A report on paying State pensions to Irish missionaries living abroad is expected to be completed within the next few months, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan told the Dáil.

The Minister said the question of paying pensions to missionaries was first raised in the context of a submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs by the Irish Missionary Union (IMU). A working group had been set up to look at the issues involved.

"Missionaries retiring here are deemed to satisfy the condition and will, subject to a means test, qualify for pensions. Unfortunately, those who return here on visits cannot be deemed to satisfy the condition because their centres of interest are not in this country," he said.

Paying tribute to the work of missionaries, Mr Brennan said: "Their efforts have become part of our history." Bernard Durkan (FG, Kildare North) said that many missionaries had spent 40 or 50 years out of the country, often spending their working lives in tropical countries, and wished to remain abroad.

"Given that they would qualify if they returned home, is it not possible to work out a formula based on the total number of such people?"

Mr Brennan said he was sympathetic to the proposal. "However, the position of other volunteer development workers must be considered before extending these provisions." He added that the IMU, in its submission to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, estimated that approximately 800 missionaries could immediately receive pensions at an estimated cost of €7 million annually. The IMU believed the numbers would peak at 1,000 per year at a cost of €9 million. "We understand that this could be an underestimation and Irish Aid has been in contact with missionary organisations to clarify the position."

Mr Brennan said that problems arose in terms of habitual residence clauses, volunteer workers and a pension system which did not easily lend itself to exemptions on the basis of the type of work people had done. "It is difficult to extend pensions to people who come home for short periods but, if they return permanently, they will almost certainly qualify for non-contributory pensions."

Mr Brennan said the noncontributory pension was more problematic than the contributory pension in that residence within the State was a pre-condition for receiving it.