Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened to what the Minister and Deputy Bruton said, but unfortunately neither addressed the current issue of the impact of the pandemic. Under the current regulations, people must be unemployed for more than 15 months before they are entitled to financial support with their heating costs. This means that workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic and who are on the PUP are excluded from these vital financial supports.

The National One Parent Family Alliance has highlighted pressing concerns about the ability of families to keep their homes as well as the issue of utility debt and arrears. The Government must change its policy. Thousands of workers in my constituency in Dublin West and beyond are out of work simply because of the pandemic. They are looking forward to going back to work.

If there was ever a time to take people out of fuel poverty and to stop people entering fuel poverty it is now. It is simple. We need to: suspend the requirement that a person who loses his or her job must be in receipt of a jobseeker's payment; extend the fuel allowance of €28 per week to people in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP; establish a discretionary fund for a Covid-19 utility debt; and make a double payment for the fuel allowance to all existing recipients for two seeks in February, because we recognise the difficulty they are in. Let us do that for the people who are workers and who are struggling also.

The financial situation for many families and individuals in the pandemic has been extremely difficult. One family who contacted me are on a PUP and they have the heating on all day since Covid. They live in rented accommodation that desperately needs to be upgraded. The windows and doors are in poor condition, which I have seen. There is poor insulation and an old and unreliable heating system. The family has no control over that. Their bills have shot through the roof because they are now in their house all day having being told by the Government that we all need to stay at home.

Another citizen told me that she has worked all of her life. She has a 30-year-old home that is badly insulated. It is a corner house with three of its walls exposed to the elements. She told me she had worked since she was 16 years old, had never asked for a single penny from the Government, had never thought she would have to say she was struggling to pay her bills and she was dreading the heating bill coming in March.

I ask the House to support the motion and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, to please not leave a single citizen behind.

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