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

Since the Taoiseach has not read the report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, I will read some passages from it:

Light, heat and power are fundamental requirements to participate in society and a prerequisite for social inclusion. ... [Last] year, SVP spent more than €5 million helping people with the cost of energy - an increase of 20% on the previous year. We are therefore concerned about the current and future impact of energy price increases on the households we are assisting - the majority of which are families with children. Furthermore, amid the current housing crisis, ]the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is] meeting more and more families who are forced to put up with substandard accommodation, with issues like damp and mould commonplace. Members are particularly worried about the risk of poor health for children living in these conditions for long periods of time.

The report notes "A household is considered energy poor if it is unable to attain an acceptable standard of warmth and energy services in the home at an affordable cost." Some of the figures in the report are stark. Households with children are more than twice as likely to be in arrears with utility bills than households without children. Some 140,000 children are living in homes that have issues with leaks, damp and rot, while 31% of lone parents are spending more than 10% of their income on energy and one lone parent in seven is in severe poverty.

I wish to raise a couple of issues beyond those raised by Deputy Ó Broin. The fuel allowance was increased to a generous €5 - I am joking - in the most recent budget. It is clear that it will go nowhere near meeting the increases in carbon tax that were brought in in the same budget. Moreover, not all of the poorest children who rely on social welfare are in receipt of fuel allowance.

As a member of the Joint Committee on Climate Action, I pursued and won the support of this House for a fuel poverty study to be carried out prior to the carbon tax being increased. As the Minister and the Government failed to do that, we must revisit the question of fuel poverty among 140,000 children, who will be waiting for Santa Claus in freezing cold and who, the report states, will huddle together in one room in an attempt by their parents to heat that room rather than have them separated throughout the house.

I want to highlight three areas of the Taoiseach's failure. The first is the housing policy and the over-reliance on the private sector. A private landlord can apply for grants to retrofit and secure a home with insulation. A tenant cannot do that. The second is the blind insistence on increasing the carbon tax for everybody, regardless of their situation. The third is the lack of ambition shown by the Government in its policies on retrofitting. The Government is leaving people in the private rented sector, as well as those who are council tenants, completely vulnerable. Councils do not have a budget this year for retrofitting homes. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, is inadequately funded to do the job that is required.

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