Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A person can qualify for the warmer homes scheme if he or she receives a disability or partial capacity allowance but not if it is an invalidity pension. Maybe the angle is that the invalidity pension is a means-tested payment. Having said that, these are primarily people who are either not going to work again for a very long time or may never work again. A means test is done usually because the person's partner is earning a middle income. There is not a lot of money in the house usually in these circumstances. An awful lot of people in receipt of invalidity pension suffer energy poverty.

My colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, asked a parliamentary question about this and the answer he received was that it was not being changed at the moment but the Government would keep an eye on it. Will the Department elaborate on the logic? Has there been more than a cursory examination of this in the past year or two? Has there been an active discussion of whether people on invalidity pension can be brought into the warmer homes scheme?