Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

The Minister's reply contains an amount of information but an amount of information is not contained in it. The Minister states €530 million will be expended this year, while the Estimates suggest a figure of €395 million; this is without taking into account the cut of €17 million which the Minister did not announce to the committee last week when we dealt with the issue. This is a time of rising prices and the Minister is cutting gas and electricity allowances by 20% and 25%, respectively, for pensioners in the main. In attempting to defend these indefensible cuts in recent days the Minister has repeatedly argued that 21% of those in receipt of the household benefits package do not use all the units included in the allowance. Will she acknowledge that neither she nor the Department knows anything about the circumstances of these 21% of recipients or, in fact, in many instances, the circumstances of the remaining 79%? Will she admit she does not know who they are, whether they are the ones sitting in the dark and the cold, scrimping and scraping and afraid to turn on the light and use up their allowance in case they exceed it? This is especially pertinent, given the recent hard winters we have endured. Many of them may be in hospital or even on holidays abroad, but we do not know. The Minister is basing a cut on the 21% on whom she has no information as a result of which the remaining 79% of recipients who exhaust their full fuel allowance will now be hit by a 25% cut.

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