Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

For Deputies with responsibility for the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the people we deal with, this issue, among many others, is always a major concern and we do all we can through our responsibilities in supporting people to meet their needs. As I said, there is an historical problem with the quality of much of the housing stock in both the public and private sectors, and it needs to be substantially upscaled and improved. From my time in the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, I know a large amount of resources is being spent through the Department and the local authorities which are best placed to do work on these houses. Examples include the new windows and insulation which have been fitted and which have transformed many of these homes and made them much warmer and more efficient for a lower cost to the people living there.

The role of the Department of Social and Family Affairs is to provide the financial supports to assist people who find themselves in need and my job is to increase as much as I can those figures on an annual basis to meet those needs when the resources are available. We are working with Sustainable Energy Ireland and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which is the lead Department on the work of maintaining and improving policy. My Department is involved but is not the lead Department. I want to be clear on our role. However, we work with Sustainable Energy Ireland and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to ensure we can resolve this issue.

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