Mr. R?n?n Hession:

The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications has my full confidence. To be serious about it, there is a question there and we certainly have a role. There is a slightly philosophical point about the extent to which we subdivide different categories, such as poverty, child poverty, food poverty and energy poverty. Certainly, in any discussion around poverty, our Department has a central role to play in income supports. In the long term, if we look at the energy poverty action plan and the types of policy levers which are needed in the efficiency of the housing stock in general and in how we approach energy policy more generally, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications is the appropriate lead Department on that. I have worked in several different Government Departments. Department are always reconfigured following elections and so on. No matter which way one slices and dices it in order that all of the energy stuff is together or all of the poverty stuff is together, one will still need that whole-of-government piece. We have seen that across many issues we have discussed in this room, be it disability or other poverty issues. We are certainly engaged. I will ask my colleague, Mr. Shevlin, the principal officer in the area to come in on the forum. He is our representative on the energy poverty action Plan.

As to who is on this action plan all day and every day, from our Department’s point of view, we are certainly very engaged on this as are the Departments with responsibility for energy and housing and the other relevant Departments. It is one of those public policy issues and because it is cross-cutting, the public system of the Civil Service has not always found it easy to get delivery of it. It requires collaboration, resources and priority. From our point of view, we certainly are engaged on it.

We see the centrality of fuel allowance and the income supports. I did not get to hear the full discussion this morning because I was on my way here but I certainly heard the first 40 minutes of it. One can see that income supports will remain a very important part of this discussion for quite some time to come. We are certainly very engaged on it and it is something we take seriously. With regard to the forum, our meetings and so on, I will ask Mr. Shevlin, who is our representative on the plan, to say a word.