Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply but as I noted earlier, it is a pity the Minister herself is not present. It is an appalling answer to state the Government accepts the situation is not ideal. The poorest people will not receive a payment fuel allowance on the correct date. It is getting colder and this is about pensioners who do not have the additional €20 that was paid to them. The allowance already has been cut because the Government cut back on the fuel allowance allocation in last year's budget by six weeks. I note that 120,000 gas and 83,000 electricity customers are in arrears.

That is the scale of fuel poverty and people's inability to pay. In addition, people would have planned on having that €20 from 1 October to pay for fuel. An increasing number of people are dependent on social welfare. They are the poorest in our society and this punishes them. The constituents who have contacted me will tell the Minister of State exactly where to shove his apology. It is not good enough for that type of mistake to happen resulting in them now being penalised by the withdrawal of a week's payment for a mistake noticed back in April.

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