Dáil debates

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Other Questions

Fuel Allowance Payments

5:55 pm

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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49. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to review the rates of payment and the periods of time for which the fuel allowance is paid by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8342/18]

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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What are the Minister’s intentions to review the payments of the fuel allowance and their duration? When we debated the Social Welfare Act 2017 I tabled an amendment to ensure she would carry out a review and use the information with a view to potentially extending or increasing the payment.

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The fuel allowance is a targeted payment of €22.50 per week, paid for the duration of the fuel season from October to April, and over 338,000 low income households benefit from this allowance, at an estimated cost of €227 million in 2018. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs, not to pay their full energy costs. One allowance is paid per household representing a contribution towards the energy costs of a household; it is not intended to meet those costs in full. In October 2017, I introduced the option for qualified households to receive their fuel allowance payment in two lump sums, as opposed to weekly, in October and in January. This allows people to buy fuel in bulk and potentially avail of special offers or discounts on the purchase of the particular fuel that meets their specific needs. In budget 2018, I increased the duration of the fuel allowance season by only one week - I would like to have done more - to 27 weeks. This is longer than the winter period in Ireland, and provides assistance during what are largely colder weeks when heating costs are expected to be at their highest.

Any changes to the scheme, in terms of the rate of payment or the duration of the fuel allowance season, would have to be considered in the overall policy and budgetary context for 2019.

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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There are strong links between low income unemployed people and fuel poverty. Single person households, lone parents and older people are more susceptible to fuel poverty. It is estimated that a colossal 28% of homes across the State are experiencing fuel poverty of one degree or another. This is the responsibility of several Departments but specifically the Minister's Department. She touched on the fact that it administers the fuel allowance. It was unfortunately cut from 32 weeks to 26 weeks in 2012. It is back up now, thankfully, to 27 weeks. The payment rate, €22.50 per week, does not go far enough because of the increase in fuel costs. Last year, electricity and gas costs went up by 5%. The cost of bottled gas has gone up colossally. Home heating oil has also gone up by 13%. The fuel allowance payment would go a considerable way to lift people out of fuel poverty so that they are not afraid to turn on their home heating, be it oil or gas. The Minister indicated that there would be a review. Will she outline what that review will entail?

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is almost asking me what I will have for my dinner next Tuesday and I do not know what I will have for my dinner tonight. I cannot tell him what will happen in the context of budget conversations because they have not started. I know he is as keen as I am to get this sorted and have a substantial effect on the households he is talking about, but he also knows I want to do that too. He will have to be patient. It is only February and the next budget negotiations will not start until next September. Other payments are available, such as a special heating supplement to assist those who in certain circumstances have special heating needs. There is also the exceptional needs payment where a person with exceptional needs can go weekly to the local social welfare or Intreo office and be looked after.

Income is only part of the answer to fuel poverty. The best way to tackle it in the long term is to make sure we have energy efficient homes with proper household insulation. We will make sure that schemes such as the warmer homes scheme, operated by Sustainable Energy Ireland, SEI, are rolled out to the entire country and that we provide grants and supports to make sure it costs people less to heat their homes, and that they are not daily portioning out their bags of coal, as described to us all. We need to make sure in the round that we give enough money to buy it and to make it less expensive to heat homes.

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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I am not asking the Minister to get into the specifics of budget 2019 but we need to be realistic. The payment does not go far enough. In 2010, a 40 kg bag of coal cost in the region of €13.50 and that now stands at €20 or thereabouts. A bale of briquettes was approximately €2.99 and now it costs approximately €4.80. Energy costs have gone up considerably. I agree that retrofitting homes needs to happen but it is not happening quickly enough for many of the families we are talking about.

The fuel allowance payment is a very targeted measure that can be used. The Minister indicated previously that there would be a conversation within the Department to have a look at the payments and the length of time involved. Will she clarify what it is she is looking at in that regard? I am not looking for information on what kind of internal conversations are going on about budget 2019, I am trying to discover what analysis is being carried out now?

6:05 pm

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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At the risk of repeating myself, I must reiterate that it is an allowance and that it is not supposed to pay for people's entire energy costs. I do not want to be smart but I am only working on the project at the moment. When I am finished working on it and examining the effects of fuel poverty on certain families in Ireland, I will then be better armed to know how I can alleviate that. I am not sure exactly what Deputy Brady wants me to say. Does he want to know exactly the meetings I am having next Tuesday? I am sorry. I am being facetious. I should not be so disrespectful. I am examining the issue and conducting my own research. We will input that research into policy decision-making when we come to negotiate the budget for next year. That may result in changes. However, changes may not be necessary because other Departments may be taking measures.

As I have already said, it is not our responsibility to provide money to pay for people's entire energy costs. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection provides income supports. I have just listed a range of those supports. The Department also increased the living alone allowance and the telephone allowance. We are acknowledging that people who live on their own find it more difficult with only a fixed income coming into the house. We acknowledge and respect the fact that they have the same outgoings. It may not be 100% but they have a lot of the same outlays as households with two or three people.

Questions Nos. 50 and 51 replied to with Written Answers.