Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The austerity policies introduced by the Fianna Fáil Party and continued by the current Government, despite a commitment given during the general election campaign not to do so, are hitting individuals and families on low and fixed incomes very hard. A survey on income and living conditions carried out by the Central Statistics Office in February 2013 found that one quarter of the population experienced two or more types of enforced deprivation in 2011, the Government's first year in office. This figure was higher than the figure for 2010. Fuel poverty, which is one form of enforced deprivation, is having a particularly devastating effect on elderly people, the sick, those in poverty and individuals and families on fixed incomes. It has increased in the Government's term of office, during which savage increases in energy prices have been permitted. I remind the Taoiseach that electricity prices increased by 14.8% in 2011 and 5.9% in 2012 and will increase again in October, while gas prices increased by 22% in 2011 and 8.5% in 2012 and are also due to be increased in October. According to the National Consumer Agency, it costs approximately €1,000 to fill a tank of home heating oil, with the cost increasing by 18% in 2012 alone. These increases could be described as indirect attacks on the living standards of ordinary people. They are condoned by the Government, which has deliberately increased fuel poverty by introducing direct cuts to living standards since taking office in 2011. These included a reduction in the number of free electricity units from 2,400 to 1,800, which was introduced when the Government was barely a wet week in office, and a cut in the duration of the free fuel allowances from 32 weeks to 26 weeks in the 2012 budget.

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