Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On this point, the Social Democrats are not arguing it is only people on social welfare schemes who should have been targeted. It should be people at risk of energy poverty and those finding it difficult to cope. I do not, though, believe that people with holiday homes will find it difficult in this regard, especially now they will be getting two payments. I do not think the MPRN approach is the most appropriate either. A better, quicker and more targeted means of doing this would be through measures similar to the Covid schemes used previously. This is how we could have got money into people's pockets very quickly. The MPRN scheme took months the last time before the money hit people's accounts. I refer to a different approach, but I do not think this is going to be the last time this kind of measure will be needed. I ask the Minister to undertake some examination of how a measure such as this can be targeted better next time around.