Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister on becoming a grandmother and on the same arrival of baby Arthur. I hope the mother is thriving.

Like other Senators, I commend the staff of the Department of Social Protection and its associated agencies because the pandemic posed a significant challenge and they certainly rose to it. I thank them for all their hard work in such challenging circumstances. I will address the pandemic unemployment payment and the uncertainty around its continuation or its staying at the same level. This is a major cause of concern for those who are in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment. The Minister has outlined before that the PUP will continue to the end of March and that the Cabinet will decide in the coming weeks whether to extend it. I urge the Minister to make this decision as soon as possible because people on the payment deserve the maximum clarity to help them to plan as much as possible over the coming weeks and months. I also reiterate the request of my colleague, Deputy Kerrane, that the Minister extend the PUP in these incredibly uncertain times to offer reassurance to workers.

I raise the issue of energy poverty, as others have, and mounting household energy bills. Every one of us has been contacted by people at their wits' end about how they will afford to pay those energy bills. The recent cold snap reminds us of how important it is to have a home that is warm. Too many people live in extreme energy poverty and have no option but to go cold because of the cost of heating. Many more will say that the sight of a bill is enough to cause fear. The human impact of energy poverty is significant. Last month, I published a report into a survey which I conducted in December, which asked people to share their experiences of energy poverty. I have a copy to hand if the Minister would like to read it because it details the lived experiences of people in Ireland and what they are going through with regard to heating their homes.

A main theme that emerged is how the pandemic has exacerbated the severity of energy poverty. There are extra costs associated with working from home for many. The Government brought a tax relief for these workers. However, many do not qualify for that support. Carers are one group which is particularly affected. One person who cares for her daughter with a disability shared her story in my survey. She said that in pre-Covid times, the heating would be off during the day while her daughter was at day services but when those services were cut, she was at home all day and now there is no choice but to keep the heating on all the time. Another person simply said that because they have to stay at home, the heating cost is much higher and they dread the cold months of January and February.

The ESRI published a report on increasing levels of energy poverty, the detrimental impact it has on children's respiratory health, and how it is likely to be exacerbated by Covid because more children are at home in damp, cold rooms instead of in classrooms. Years of growing up in these conditions makes children vulnerable to respiratory diseases such as Covid. Consequently, making sure that children do not grow up in the cold is not just the right thing to do but also is a good thing to do for public health. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has estimated that energy poverty affects one in six households in Ireland and is concerned that a significant proportion of households will be in energy debt as we emerge from Covid-19. People who are already struggling to make ends meet are facing increased heating costs and must stay home. There are no warm places for them to go. Many of these people were on social welfare or out of work when the pandemic hit and, as a result, they did not qualify for the PUP or the working-from-home tax relief. My question is what the Department will do directly to tackle the increased cost of energy for those who need support. Sinn Féin is calling for commonsense solutions to help people afford to stay warm. Currently, the fuel allowance is not available to recipients of the PUP and pandemic unemployment rates have not been adjusted to take into account increased heating costs during winter months. Households currently have to make their weekly payments stretch even further to meet these costs.

Sinn Féin calls on the Government to extend the fuel allowance of €28 per week to PUP recipients. Currently, a person who loses his or her job cannot access the fuel allowance, as others have said, until he or she is in receipt of a jobseeker's payment for more than 390 days, which is more than 15 months. That is simply not acceptable. Sinn Féin calls on the Government to suspend the lengthy 15-month qualification criterion for the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic and then review the qualifying period once we are through it.

The pandemic has proven that the Government can take extraordinary measures. Action we were previously told was impossible has been taken by this Government. However, we have also seen extraordinarily mean measures being taken. One of the most obvious was taken last month, when the Government took the extraordinary measure to retrospectively collect tax on a payment for the first time in history. I urge the Minister to spend her time better taking extraordinary actions to help people who now face increased household energy bills rather than pursuing what she said in her own words on radio only a few weeks ago was a very small amount of money from a very small number of people affected by the tax measures.