Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and both of our witnesses. My question is for Mr. Maughan. I would like to tease out where he got that 737 million allocation for Ireland under the social climate fund. Why is only 25% of the ETS going to be allocated to the social climate fund? On the allocation key Mr. Maughan referred to in the opening statement, we do not really know the extent of fuel poverty in Ireland so how have we identified those households? I know the 2015 report commissioned by the Department, when it used the objective indicator, said that fuel poverty could be as high as 28% and even as high as 50% in the north west. The later report from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2020 said we actually do not have sufficient data to use that objective measure from the 2015 report. The fuel poverty strategy lapsed in 2019. We were told we would have the Central Statistics Office, CSO, indicators to better measure fuel poverty by the close of 2020. How have we arrived at the figure of 737 million and what indicators did the Department submit to the EU to get that figure? I also ask Mr. Maughan to touch on why it is only 25% of the ETS that is going to the social climate fund.