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

To answer the Deputy's question, as I noted earlier on, of the ring-fenced €90 million that will be raised through the carbon tax this year, the single biggest investment of €21 million is coming to my Department to try to shield those who are most vulnerable.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment has the sole responsibility, with the Minister for Finance, for reducing energy poverty and introducing measures to improve the energy efficiency of Irish homes. In 2016, the Government launched a comprehensive strategy to combat energy poverty followed by extensive public consultation and that strategy is spearheaded by the Minister, Deputy Bruton. It sets out the Government's commitment to protecting vulnerable households from energy poverty through a combination of supports, investments in schemes to improve energy efficiency and energy efficiency awareness initiatives.

For my part, the best route out of poverty that we can help with the Department is to ensure that anybody who wants to get a job has the support and services to help him or her get a job. We have all accepted that in the past number of years there have been some successes in that particular project but there is still a long way to go, given that 4.8% of the people are on the unemployment register.

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