Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State referred to additional needs payments that can be accessed through the Department of Social Protection. Does he know what that involves? I raised with other Ministers the fact that it is impossible to get payments from that Department.

There is ten-week waiting list for exceptional needs payments, payments to meet critical needs when, for example, one's house burns down. Staff are overwhelmed. It is simply not working. Not only the Minister of State, but other Ministers have urged people to go to the Department of Social Protection for exceptional needs payments but they are simply not paid out. Ministers either need to stop saying that or to fund the offices, put in the staff and provide money for them to give out. Staff ring us after every debate in which this is raised because people are coming to their offices but they have nothing to give them. We have to stop pretending there is money for exceptional needs payments when there is not. I have replies to parliamentary questions from the Minister for Social Protection proving this.

We will be supporting the Bill although we would have preferred that a different approach be taken to address the rising cost of energy for households. The approach we had proposed, freezing energy prices and capping them at summer 2021 rates, would have offered households certainty on their energy bills. That would have been a real break for many families. It is not an exaggeration to say that households are living in fear of their next energy bill. Along with the cost of rent or mortgage repayments, energy is the biggest cost for householders across the country. While we believe the proposals contained in this Bill do not go far enough, they offer some assistance to people over the coming winter. The €600 energy credit will have some positive impact on citizens' bills over these months and that is welcome.

While supporting the Bill, we have submitted a number of amendments to ensure the electricity credit is delivered equally and to all customers regardless of their electricity set-up. To this end, we have submitted an amendment with the aim of identifying those households that did not receive the initial €200 such as those in multi-unit complexes that share a meter, many of whom are local authority tenants, and those members of the Travelling community whom the Minister of State referred to although he had no solution to the problem they face apart from talking to them. Deputy O'Reilly gave the Minister of State solutions. She suggested that the payment be made at local MABS or welfare offices. My time is up. We welcome the Bill although we have great problems with parts of it.

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