Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I want to put one or two points to the Minister. My amendment seeks a report on the payment of the fuel allowance as a once-off bulk payment. I would like the Minister to at least consider that and engage in a discussion with some of the relevant groups in the sector. I am sure the Minister, no more than myself and other Deputies here, has come across pensioners in particular who borrow from their credit union to buy a full delivery of whatever type of fuel they use, be it briquettes, coal, turf, logs or whatever. They then use the fuel allowance to pay off the loan they get to provide them with fuel. It is slightly cheaper to buy fuel in bulk, although if they use oil they have no alternative but to buy in bulk and that is causing hardship. I accept some people are not as good as others at balancing their budgets and it may be more convenient for them to get the payment every week, but this aspect should be examined with a view to at least giving people the option.

In seeking a report, I ask that it would also consider the option of transferring the free electricity allowance to the natural gas allowance, which is only available to people who are on the town gas system. Unfortunately, only a limited number of towns are on that gas system. With more apartments being built, particularly in the main towns of each county, some of which are not on the natural gas system, and where the central heating system is separately metered and so on, people are unable to transfer the allowance because that is not an option. Obviously, as more social housing units are being provided by developers, more people will be put into those type of units not necessarily by choice, but because that is all that is available from the local authority. That has become more of a problem recently. In asking the Minister to consider this issue, I ask him to examine that aspect also.

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