Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy noted, this contingency fund is in place and the Department certainly intends to use it in a focused way. I also am considering the possible reduction in the upper limit of the grants because in some cases, the averages are only between 30% and 50% of the actual upper limits. This would be a way of spreading the money around further. I am also engaged in attempting to ascertain whether some kind of stimulus proposal can be put in place this year that would employ some of those people to whom Deputy Troy referred. Perhaps it would not necessarily be in this particular scheme but, for example, local authority houses could be retrofitted more extensively than is the case at present, which also would ease the burden of the payment of fuel bills for people in some of the older local authority houses. I am certainly conscious both of the need to stimulate employment and of the employment these grants provide. I protected the budget as best I could and my Department was obliged to spread it around as well as it could. I thank the Deputies for raising the issues and I will certainly consider the proposal by Deputy Sean Fleming that the information be published for the entire country.

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