Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The Government's objective is to ensure that a social welfare recipient's total weekly income is sufficient to meet all their basic living needs, including food and heating costs. In recent years significant budget resources have been concentrated on providing real increases over and above inflation in all primary social welfare pension, benefit and assistance rates. This approach delivers a better outcome for pensioners and others by substantially increasing their income in real terms over the whole year, to better assist them in meeting their normal basic living costs, including heating.

Overall inflation, including food costs and fuel price increases, has amounted to 12.8% since January 2002. In the same period weekly social welfare rates incorporating fuel allowance have increased cumulatively by between 33% and37%. The household benefits allowances have also been increased fully in line with electricity and gas prices in the period and these are payable all year round to assist eligible pensioners, carers and disabled people with their heating costs.

Fuel allowances are supplements payable over the winter months to people in receipt of pensions and other qualifying social welfare schemes. Some 274,000 people receive this allowance at a cost of €85.4 million this year.

Increases in basic payment rates or in the rate or duration of the fuel allowance have significant cost implications. For example, an increase in basic rates of €1 per week would cost €52 million per annum. Increasing the fuel allowance by €1 per week would cost €8 million per annum. Increasing the duration of the fuel allowance by one week would cost just under €3 million per annum.

There is a broader issue of energy inefficiency, particularly in older private dwellings. Problems with poor insulation or inefficient heating systems in some houses can lead to discomfort and health problems, as well as being more wasteful of fuel costs.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

Obviously, I recognise that someone on a low income in a private dwelling has limited scope to spend money to correct structural energy inefficiencies in his or her house. As a start in addressing this issue, my Department is co-operating with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and local Government, Sustainable Energy Ireland and the Combat Poverty Agency in a pilot action research project in Cork and Donegal to improve heating systems and insulation in selected older private dwellings and to monitor the outcomes for the households in terms of improved cost-efficiency and comfort and health levels. This project is due to commence shortly and should be informative in formulating future policy on this issue, as well as being of more immediate direct benefit to the pilot households involved.

In the meantime, I am keeping the various social welfare programmes under close review to ensure that they assist towards heating needs as efficiently and effectively as possible within the budget resources available to me.

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