Fr Patsy Lynch. Photo: RTÉ A returned missionary priest who doesn’t qualify for a state pension is to speak with his religious order, the Society of African Missions (SMA) to find out why apparently no stamps were paid on his behalf while he was a missionary in Ghana for 31 years, which he claims was a paid employment where he received an allowance.
Fr Patsy Lynch told this paper that he is two years short of stamps to qualify for the contributory pension. He believes that those stamps could be paid in order for him to qualify.
The non-contributory pension is means-tested and because he is a working priest in the Diocese of Kerry he doesn’t qualify, earning over the threshold limit.
“It would be very easy to retire in six months and get the pension but I love the work and being out and about here in a beautiful part of Kerry” he said. He said he had got a lot of publicity and was going on ‘Prime Time with Miriam’ and was confident that a good resolution could be found.
Returned Irish missionaries receive a non-contributory state pension and have access to health benefits such as nursing homes The Irish Catholic has been told. However this is only if they don’t work.
Sources in the missionary community said they never heard of a missionary being refused the state pension and another missionary source said that missionaries received the non-contributory pension.
“They don’t receive the contributory pension because they have not been contributing to it” said the source adding that the difference between the two pensions was not huge and that health resources were available to returned missionaries. However Fr Lynch said these missionaries come home to retire but he hadn’t.