Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I believe we will be able to say with confidence that it is unlikely that the increase the Minister has allocated for exceptional needs payments is going to cover the demand.

We are increasingly seeing, as the Barnardos report showed yesterday, that people who are earning substantially more - I know the CWOs have discretion - are also running into real difficulty with the energy crisis in particular and mortgage increases.

I will draw attention to one particular cohort, namely, people living with district heating systems. Many of them who have been in touch with me are facing utterly unsustainable bills. There are high energy costs in these systems that are not controlled by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. People using such systems do not have the option to move companies the way the rest of us do. I have questioned CRU about this at the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action and the lack of protection and options or choices to move mean they face uncontrollable heating bills. Many of them have been turned down by CWOs. I ask the Minister to give these people a favourable view, and instruct the CWOs to cut them a little slack, because of the crises they face and the lack of protections the State offers them.

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