Dr. Tricia Keilthy:

I will take the question on solid fuel and Ms Petrie might take the question on health impacts. Certainly, the fuel type that is available to people in rural communities is having an impact on the incidence of energy poverty.

We know that if people are reliant on oil as their main heating source, which rural communities are more likely to be, the fact that they have to pay quite a large amount up front can cause difficulties for those households. The movement to pay the fuel allowance on a lump-sum basis has helped, but over the winter period, particularly this winter and the winter before, we saw households having to supplement more with solid fuel as their heating source. Again, that is expensive and can cause health and well-being difficulties for people.

The other issue we see as regards rural households is that the energy efficiency of those homes can be much lower. Maybe they are larger homes, which are more difficult to heat. Those two factors can have an impact. We have also seen the knock-on impacts of higher transport costs for people in rural areas, meaning they have to cut back on other areas of the household budget. As regards addressing some of those issues, it is about ensuring that the homes are energy-upgraded, insulated and warm and that, while we transition to a low-carbon economy, people still have options that are affordable and no one is forced into energy poverty as a result of that.