46 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if, further to his statement on 10 February 2002, he will outline his plans for the provision of pension entitlements for homemakers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6598/02]

The Government is committed to extending social insurance based pension cover to as many categories as possible. In recent years more flexibility has been introduced into the qualifying conditions for the old age contributory pension scheme.

Measures I introduced include the reduction in 1997 in the average number of PRSI contributions required for pension purposes to ten and the payment of a special half rate pension, introduced in 2000, based on pre-1953 insurance contributions. Pro rata pensions are also available for people with mixed insurance contributions.