Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Will the election take place this year or not? If it is going to take place this year, when will the legislation for it be brought before the House?

The second issue I wish to raise is the allowance promised to the 300,000 families who will be affected by the introduction of the carbon levy on home heating oil from next Saturday. It is not acceptable that the poorest households can be dismissed, as the Taoiseach and the Minister for so-called Social Protection did yesterday in their statement. The Government is welshing and reneging on the promise of a special allowance for these families before the carbon levy is introduced. The Minister, Deputy Ó Cuív, now says they will not get this allowance until next October.

Those affected are families dependent on oil for home heating and who have seen its price go up by 37% in the past year with another 9% increase due after the introduction of the carbon levy. These people were promised an allowance to offset this. I did not expect the allowance to be huge but it would have been some assistance to these families in paying the increased costs for heating their homes.

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