Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. Just today, I spoke to a 94-year-old man who, with his wife, is in receipt of an occupational pension. They do not pass the means test for the fuel allowance. Last week, I spoke with a couple of retirement age who have a combined working life of 84 years between them, and they do not fulfil the criteria for the fuel allowance.

The common denominator there is that both couples worked hard all of their lives, raised families and paid their contributions to the State. They feel marginalised and hard done by in the midst of this crisis because the fuel allowance will not cover them. I will not advise them to go to a community welfare officer for an exceptional needs payment because they are not that type of people. They are proud people and they feel that the contributions they have made through their taxation should be enough to allow for access, albeit it might be on a temporary basis while this crisis is ongoing, to some recognition by the State of their needs and the costs they are incurring, particularly on fuel. I mention the 94-year-old gentleman. He is most lucid and his mind is as sharp as it ever was but his body is not where he would like it to be. He said to me today that he has to keep the heating on because of the type of medication he is on. The money is flowing out of the door, so much so that the couple are incurring personal debt. He said to me that if the fuel allowance was expanded, albeit on a temporary basis, to allow for his circumstances and that of his wife, it would allow him to maintain his dignity and pride with a temporary payment to get him over this challenge.

We all recognise that there are external forces at play and nobody would deny that but we must take cognisance of the people who are not fulfilling the criteria for fuel allowance and who are living in fuel impoverished households. They should not have to wait for the national retrofitting scheme, which Age Action Ireland tells us we will take at least eight years to meet its full targets. God only knows where my 94-year-old man will be at that stage of his life. We should at least put something in place now by way of an expansion or extension beyond the 372 households that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, announced on 14 March. I note that the Minister of State mentioned 390 households in his speech so there is a contradiction of 18,000 houses there and there has been an inflation of figures between Departments since 14 March.

Notwithstanding that, there is a simple ask here. These are working people who paid massive taxes to the State in the 1970s and 1980s and made massive sacrifices to put their children through college. Many of these people their children were the first generation of children in their families to go to university or third level institutions. We must recognise the predicament they are in and we should not force them to have to go to a community welfare officer. The State, through its Departments, should recognise that predicament and extend the fuel allowance, albeit as a temporary measure, to get them over the challenges they face because along with the increase in costs as has been articulated by many Members, there is also the increase in the price of food. All of these people are on fixed incomes and they do not want to eat into their credit union savings because by and large, these savings are what these people have left to bury themselves in some instances. The savings will be used to meet emergency family crisis needs or to bury themselves. We do not want to have them in a situation where they have to dip into those savings. There is scope for the Government to introduce a scheme of this nature and I ask that the Minister of State would take that on board.

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