Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy has asked this question on previous occasions and I have had no difficulty in answering it. I expect to receive the report to which she referred over the summer period. As the Deputy rightly points out, and as I have said from the beginning, the months during which significant heating costs arise are those from October through to spring, that is, the months for which the fuel allowance is payable. As I said, I am awaiting the report of the strategy group. It will have to go to Cabinet, after which we will make a decision on how to assist those at risk of fuel poverty. I envisage a dual approach in this regard. The Deputy has focused on cash assistance, but the other side of the coin is equally important, namely, the question of how we can help people to reduce their energy requirements. Yesterday, we discussed the transfer of the schemes. I expect activation to play a role in insulating some houses.

An issue that is relevant to this and to the Deputy's previous question relates to my discovery, having begun to examine data on fuel poverty, that people living in rented accommodation are far more likely than those in owned occupation to complain that their homes are cold. This is a factor that I must take into consideration not only in regard to this issue, but also in the context of the previous question.

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