Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, was on the airwaves today, encouraging elderly people not to skimp on their heating. He rightly said that shivering behind a single bar electric heater would be penny wise and pound foolish. However, the difficulty is that when one moves beyond the rhetoric, the Government is not prepared to stand up that advice with anything substantive. We know that in January, the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, committed to a review of the fuel allowance scheme. I presume that is under way. There is no point in telling people who are cold simply to run their heating 24-7 during the cold spell and not to worry about how they will pay for it. They simply will not do that. There is no point in telling them they might get reimbursed through discretionary schemes, as the Taoiseach has just suggested. The Government needs to commit to a double week of fuel allowance now.

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