Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise several issues today. The first concerns emergency electricity credits. We all know that 2.2 million households will benefit from the worthwhile and needed €450 million that was announced by the Government in recent months. The reason I raise this issue today is that, in response to a number of queries I have had in the last couple of days, particularly around low usage by electricity consumers, what I have been told by both the CRU and the Minister is that the credits have been taken up by 95% of eligible customers but the 5% who have not taken them up are deemed low usage account holders.

The reply I received from the CRU is worrying and I will explain why. The CRU tells me that the account holder has not contacted the supplier. I want to give the example of one of three cases I have come across in the last week, where the account holder has received three phone calls from the supplier demanding the money outstanding, which was in excess of €100. The account holder came to me and when I spoke to the CRU and the supplier, it turns out this is a vulnerable customer. At no time did the supplier state that in the three phone calls. All it was looking for was its pound of flesh - the €100 and above.

It is very wrong that we have a situation where vulnerable customers are being asked to contact their supplier to get what they should be getting in the first place, that is, the credits the Government introduced. I ask that the 5% of people who are still outstanding be contacted by both the CRU and the Government to ensure they are not like the customer I had in my office last Friday, who received three phone calls from the supplier demanding more than €100. In fact, now that I have sorted this out, he is in credit to the tune of almost €300. That is what has happened three times this week. I would like the Leader to follow that up with both the CRU and the Minister because it is wrong that 5% of people are being told to contact their supplier when they could be in credit.

Unfortunately, I have to bring up an old chestnut once again and it is probably the fifth time I have mentioned the housing adaptation and housing aid grants in the House. The reason I raise this today is because we have received letters from Kildare County Council that it has now spent all the money it has for these grants and it is refusing to deal with new grants. It will process them but it cannot complete them, although it says it will do emergency works. As I have always done in this case, I thank the staff who are dealing with this. I have been dealing with this issue for two years and I have been told there is a report on the Minister's desk. We need to get that report out. We need housing grants and we need to make sure vulnerable people are cared for.

The last issue concerns jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker’s benefit. I have come across quite a number of cases where people who applied for carer’s allowance are having their jobseeker’s allowance or jobseeker’s benefit stopped because they replied that they are not actively looking for work. The issue is that they then have to look for an exceptional needs payment or a supplementary welfare payment when they should be allowed to await the outcome of their carer’s allowance application rather than having their jobseeker’s payment cut in advance of that. It is causing a problem and I have dealt with multiple cases in the past couple of weeks. I ask that this be raised with the Minister concerned.