Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Health has announced a new autism plan for next year. I ask that he be invited to the House so that we can discuss the plan in detail and give him our input and views on it. We must ensure that the plan works for people with autism and their families.

A recently published report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul warns that many households are at risk of fuel poverty and blackouts this winter. Increasing energy bills and higher prices for those on pay-as-you-go meters mean that many low income families will struggle to heat their homes. Some will have to choose between feeding their families and heating their homes. SSE Airtricity and Pinergy customers are facing 6% increases in energy costs over the coming months. I have looked at energy bills for different household types and compared them to last year and the year before. People now have to find enormous amounts of money to meet their energy bills, which is a matter of real concern.

Sinn Féin believes this issue must be tackled head on and proposes a number of measures that can be taken immediately. A cross-departmental report on the effectiveness of the fuel allowance scheme, taking account of increased energy costs, must be prepared. The Government should also explore the option of introducing a cold weather payment, similar to the one in place in Northern Ireland in times of severe weather events. There is also a need to provide additional resources to local authorities to enable them to increase the number and frequency of inspections of private rental properties. Local authority houses should be setting the standard for the warmer home and conservation schemes. We must see the continued roll-out of the energy efficiency retrofitting programme and the Government must ensure that phase 2 is made available to improve local authority housing across the State. Sinn Féin also urges the Government to expand eligibility for the warmer homes scheme, which offers some energy retrofitting to certain low income households free of charge. The qualifying criteria for that scheme must be relaxed. We also call on the Government to introduce a subsidised, low cost, green loan scheme to enable the purchase of energy efficiency and microgeneration technologies by a wider cohort of households so that increasing numbers of households can enjoy low energy bills.

It is really important that we act on this and I ask that the Minister be invited to the House to discuss fuel poverty and some of the solutions put forward by Sinn Féin.