Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for permitting me to raise this issue today. A number of elderly people in particular have contacted me about letters they have received from the Department of Social and Family Affairs stating that their entitlement to the annual winter fuel allowance of €12.90 per week, as it is in Dublin, is now terminated. These people are tenants of Dublin City Council living in centrally controlled and centrally heated communal complexes. On average they pay €6 or €7 per week for 52 weeks or a minimum of €300 to the local authority. At the same time the fuel allowance operated by the Department of Social and Family Affairs lasts for 29 weeks from September to mid April. They were receiving this allowance which was worth approximately €375 per person per year.

I understand approximately 237 people have been identified by the Department of Social and Family Affairs as being in receipt of both benefits. This was determined in a trawl by the Department. I do not know how the trawl was initiated and how it was suddenly discovered after so many years — I would like to know for how many years this operated.

In total the €12.90 per week for 29 weeks of the year amounts to approximately €90,000 per annum. We are not talking about large sums of money and there is no question of fraud. This matter was raised by Deputies Upton and Quinn on 5 October. Last week I was sitting in the Chair when the Minister for Social and Family Affairs addressed the matter. He explained the Department's thinking on the matter. He did not give any indication of how the trawl came about. He expressed some sympathy for the people and said he would review the situation, as was his response to Deputies Upton and Quinn. Some 274,000 households are in receipt of the fuel allowance. The 237 people involved represent less than 0.1%. We are talking about very small numbers. These are virtually all elderly or disabled as otherwise they would not receive the fuel allowance.

Why should we not give them a Christmas box? Nobody was aware of the anomaly up to now. Nobody is complaining about it or suggesting they are being discriminated against. However, the old and disabled people in receipt of the allowance are sorely missing it since it has been withdrawn. They are missing the extra heat. Elderly and disabled people need such extra heat to which they had become accustomed. They are not to blame for what was an anomaly or an error in the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

I appeal to the Minister to do the generous and honourable thing and allow those 237 people who are in need of as much heat as they can get for the 29 months during which the fuel allowance is payable to retain it so that they can put on a fire occasionally and have the extra bit of heat that makes life tolerable.

See this speech in context