Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

It is not, but if the Deputy has that list, I would not mind looking at it. The 237 individuals identified were in receipt of fuel allowance as well as being on subsidised heating. There are approximately 4,000 people in receipt of subsidised heating from the city council and the 237 found were also in receipt of fuel allowance. That was an error. Under the law of the land — criticise it as the Deputy will and seek changes as is his duty — the regulations are that this group is not entitled to a fuel allowance. They pay approximately €6.50 a week towards heating to the city council. The fuel is supplied and paid for and these people are not affected by, for example, the recent quite enormous upsurge in oil prices. Successive Ministers never intended that this group would qualify for the fuel allowance because fuel is supplied — the price of oil does not affect its price — and members pay €6.50 a week towards it.

When the Department review group did the trawl, it found that 237 out of the 4,000 in the group had been receiving the allowance in error. As I understand it, those people were informed the error could not continue and would have to be corrected. The people in question were told there was no question of having to pay back the money——

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