Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Fine Gael spokesperson on sport in the Seanad, I extend my party's sympathies to the Ó Muircheartaigh family. Mícheál was the voice of the GAA for me growing up. One memory popped into my head. It was during a Munster hurling match, although I forget which game it was, when Mícheál said a Rabbitte was chasing a Fox in his commentary. He brought the game to life, even over the radio. You could visually imagine the game in your head as you listened to his commentary. He will be deeply mourned.

I raise an issue that came up with candidates running in the local elections, namely, the fuel allowance, particularly for the elderly. Given the change in our country's climate, including the longer winters we are having, I ask that the Minister for Social Protection look at extending the season for the fuel allowance. It currently finishes at the end of March. Perhaps we could look at extending it to the beginning of May because the climate has changed. Our winters are longer and we need to make sure we support those who are the most vulnerable in particular.

In recent times, I have had discussions with a number of the community employment schemes in Longford. We know the valuable work these schemes do throughout our communities, from Tidy Towns activities to looking after GAA pitches and community centres and halls. There seem to have been changes in the systems regarding verifying payments, etc. While the changes may have been brought in for a good reason, the vast majority of the sponsor groups are made up of volunteers in the community and the changes are imposing a serious amount of added work and responsibility on them. We have full-time supervisors in place to do this work, yet these changes to the system are putting extra work on the schemes. I know of one scheme in a Carrickedmond and Legan in south Longford where the chair of the local group is going to step back because he cannot commit to give so much time in a voluntary capacity. The system was working and I do not see why it was necessary to change it. We will start losing the voluntary committees administering these schemes if we do not reverse these changes. I ask that the Minister for Social Protection bring back the old system to ensure we can maintain the voluntary committees which are overseeing these vital schemes in all our communities.