Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The short-term measure, as I said earlier, is the additional needs payments. The community welfare officers have been given direction on what is viable to cover in respect of people's costs, and energy costs are certainly part of that. The medium-term intervention is the budget. It was been clearly flagged at an early stage that it will be a cost-of-living budget. All Departments have been asked to examine how they can assist in that; it is not only our Department, although we will have a key role. On the longer-term, we do not want to be here in three, four or five years still talking about the same people who need more increases to fuel allowance. The long-term plan, which has started, is the national retrofitting plan. It is gearing up and we have committed to investing a significant amount in that in the coming years.

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