Mr. Justin Moran:

The 2007 Green Paper on pensions referred to backdating the scheme to 1973 and provided a figure of approximately €150 million. The paper acknowledged, however, that its figures were not calculated in detail. Since January, the Department has been indicating that it has done much more substantial work on how it would backdate the homemaker's scheme and has provided an estimate of €290 million for doing so. However, it is not clear which year it used as the basis for backdating, nor is it clear how many people would take it up.

Ms Feely will address fuel poverty, after which I will discuss some of our other priorities.