Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We can all agree that the fuel allowance at the moment is targeted in a certain way to a certain number of social welfare recipients. I believe this needs to broaden out to much more than the cohort of people who currently receive it. If a person is on illness benefit he or she does not get it. A person on disability benefit does not get the fuel allowance. There is a whole cohort of people who do not qualify. For example, a person may be on a small private pension along with a State pension. If this person is over the threshold by just €5 then he or she does not get the fuel allowance whatsoever. When one takes into account the spiralling cost of fuel the €33 fuel allowance is welcome but it must relate to the income a person has and the payment itself. A whole cohort who could benefit by a targeted measure are not benefitting. Perhaps the Minister of State will address this.

I also wish to allude to another important point after the response.

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