Dr. Muireann Lynch:

If it is helpful to the committee, one of the papers published this year by colleagues in the ESRI includes a table showing the extent of fuel poverty across various metrics under the first and third definitions, which I mentioned earlier. It also calculated the increase in fuel poverty under a €10 carbon tax increase, not including any recycling options or behavioural change. For example, under the subjective self-reported measure, 8.7% of households are in fuel poverty and, under the 10% of expenditure figure, it is 17.4%, which is huge difference. The 17.4% moves to 18.1% under a carbon tax increase. For a retired single person, it is 5.6% under the subjective measure and 41.4% under the expenditure measure, with the latter figure moving to 42.8% following an increase. There can be a massive difference depending on the definition chosen. I will give the clerk a copy of the paper for circulation to members.