Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is almost asking me what I will have for my dinner next Tuesday and I do not know what I will have for my dinner tonight. I cannot tell him what will happen in the context of budget conversations because they have not started. I know he is as keen as I am to get this sorted and have a substantial effect on the households he is talking about, but he also knows I want to do that too. He will have to be patient. It is only February and the next budget negotiations will not start until next September. Other payments are available, such as a special heating supplement to assist those who in certain circumstances have special heating needs. There is also the exceptional needs payment where a person with exceptional needs can go weekly to the local social welfare or Intreo office and be looked after.

Income is only part of the answer to fuel poverty. The best way to tackle it in the long term is to make sure we have energy efficient homes with proper household insulation. We will make sure that schemes such as the warmer homes scheme, operated by Sustainable Energy Ireland, SEI, are rolled out to the entire country and that we provide grants and supports to make sure it costs people less to heat their homes, and that they are not daily portioning out their bags of coal, as described to us all. We need to make sure in the round that we give enough money to buy it and to make it less expensive to heat homes.

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