Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I do not wish to use unparliamentary language, but what the Minister said is totally and utterly incorrect. The saving we budgeted for was made by getting a better deal from the utility companies. What was specifically written into the budget, and is in the budget documentation and the leaflet we published on budget day, is that there would be no reduction in the number of units and that the saving would be made by going to the utility companies, mainly the ESB, which supply electricity to the customers in receipt of the free allowance and seeking a discount on the basis that the State is paying a huge amount of money, on time and all of the time. That was the whole basis of the decision made by the last Government. At no stage was it ever considered to reduce the number of units; that was specifically ruled out in the documentation on budget day.

The Minister is being barefaced in propagating incorrect information from the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton. Will he correct the record? Second, will he acknowledge that, as Minister for Social Protection, I was the first to propose that terminal standards would be laid down for rental properties and that a comprehensive regime of energy efficiency would be operated between the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Social Protection?

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