Minister blames computer system for delay in fixing pensions anomaly
The Social Protection Minister, Regina Doherty, has blamed her IT system for the delay in restoring pension payments.
Ms Doherty says her department does not have the technology yet to manage a "total contributions model".
The Government announced yesterday it will be 2019 before it will get rid of an anomaly leaving thousands with reduced payments after their PRSI contributions are averaged out.
It will cost €40m this year to fix the problem but Minister Doherty says she will try not to let it affect other payments from her department.
She said: "It'll certainly test my negotiation skills next year.
"Now it'll have to come out of the baseline figure and other people might be critical of that, but I was very confident and adamant that this had to be fixed.
"So, it will certainly be the first item on the list when I sit down with the Department of Finance this year."
