Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The representatives of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul might revert to the committee on the example from New Zealand on the embedding of poverty-proofing in the budgetary process. We will have the Minister before the committee in the next fortnight dealing with the Estimates and this will give us an opportunity to flag the issue. Ms Petrie highlighted the issue regarding the social energy tariff and the possibility of considering an example here. Any system that would ensure those in fuel poverty are not subsidising the cost of electricity for data centres and other big consumers of electricity in this country has to be examined. It is immoral that people who are living in poverty are subsidising the cost of that electricity. That cannot be allowed to continue.

Without giving us specific details, could Ms Duffy revert to us with the example of the carer with three profoundly disabled children who is ineligible for the carer's allowance? We could reflect on that in our pre-budget submission and flag the anomaly regarding the tenant purchase scheme.

The one comment made today that really stood out for me was made by the delegation from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. It was stated that 30% to 35% of all the calls received by the society are about food costs. We are living in a country where we dump two tons of food every single minute, yet one third of all the calls to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are about food poverty.

The representatives might address the final questions asked by Deputy Ó Cathasaigh because we need to wrap up within the next five minutes. The representatives from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul may go first, followed by those from Family Carers Ireland.