Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

If she is entitled to illness benefit, she should be entitled to the fuel allowance, which she should have been getting for the past nine years, as well as the cost-of-living payment. The Minister should do something about this.

Beyond that, I see no justification for why people on illness benefit, jobseeker's benefit, maternity benefit, death benefit, injury benefit, or carer's benefit should not have the fuel allowance. Why should they not have it? There is no good reason for this. They will suffer during the coldest winter. They are suffering with the increases in bills. Just because of their short-term payment, based on their PRSI contributions, they are refused fuel allowance. That is outrageous and the fuel allowance should be extended to them.

Deputy Devlin said it was good that the income thresholds for the fuel allowance, people in receipt of pensions, people aged over 70 or for people under 70 on a State pension have increased. I accept that is a positive measure. I received an answer from the Minister to a parliamentary question that stated she does not intend to advertise that fact in January. There will be no public information campaign. I suggest that she holds a public information campaign, in January, that is broadcast, loud and clear, informing people to check whether the new means thresholds will mean they are entitled to the allowance. It should be broadcast from the rooftops, on the radio and television that people may be entitled to the fuel allowance.

The autumn bonus double payment was included for some benefits but not illness benefit. Why not? I do not see why it should not be included. People are off work as a result of illness. Just because it is short term does not mean they are any less affected by the cost-of-living crisis, winter costs and so on. Unless the Minister will say otherwise, I assume all the people who do not receive the double payment will also not get the double payment at Christmas. They should get the double payment at Christmas because they need it just as much as everyone else.

Those are my points, which I hope the Minister will address. They are anomalies, which is a nice word for them. They are injustices. On the wider issue, the Government has to do a lot more.

On the question of how we pay for all this, one way would be through employer PRSI contributions. In our budget, which was costed by the Department of Social Protection, People Before Profit suggested a new PRSI rate of 19.75% to be paid by employers for employees who are paid more than €90,000 per year. It would pertain to a relatively small cohort, for whom they would have an increased PRSI contribution and would raise €866 million in one year. We have some of the lowest employer PRSI rates in Europe. If we were to slightly increase the 11.5% rate to 13.05%, we would raise €1.5 billion, a calculation that was costed by the Minister's Department. If a relatively small increase were made to the lower rate of employer PRSI and to the higher rate of employer PRSI for the highest earners, we could raise €2.3 billion. That would go a long way to redistributing some of the wealth in this country to alleviate poverty and energy poverty in particular.

The Minister will be aware of a study that suggests the average additional costs can be between €9,000 and €12,000 per year for those with a disability. Where in the Bill is the premium, on an ongoing basis, for people with disabilities to compensate them for the €9,000 to €12,000 additional cost they incur? We should do that.

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