Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I had a phone call this morning from pensioners who live in Claddagh Court in Ballyfermot. It is a council-run facility which houses a few hundred pensioners. The council, as a matter of policy, turns off the heating every night.

Many of these pensioners will be leaving their ovens on and keeping them open in order to keep their flats warm so as well as the issues that have been raised by others about fuel poverty, there is also the issue of whether the Government can instruct local authorities and voluntary bodies that run flats for old people to leave the heating on because the residents do not have the option of controlling the temperature in their flats. If a red alert is issued, there needs to be an instruction to workers not to come to work and an instruction to employers to pay them. We cannot leave it vague and open because it is putting too many people at risk.

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