Seanad debates
Tuesday, 21 February 2023
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Traveller Community
2:30 pm
Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, to the House.
Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for being here. I am standing here again today to raise an important issue around the energy relief that was promised to us all. As we know, the electricity costs emergency benefits scheme that was first promised to us all last year was for the sum of €200 in 2022. This has been extended to €600 over 2022 and early this year. However, many members of the Traveller community have still not received the full credit, or any credit at all, because of the type of accommodation they live in.
National Traveller MABS and I have sought clarity and action on these issues. We received a guarantee from the Minister that the situation would be addressed. However, National Traveller MABS is still hearing of members of the Traveller community who have not received any credit to date. We were given a guarantee from the Minister that the credit would no longer be taken from the Traveller accommodation fund, but we still heard of this happening late last year.
National Traveller MABS first wrote to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, last January looking for a meeting to get clarity, where the Department explained to us about the lack of individual meter point reference numbers, MPRNs, and the issue of doubling up.We explained about Traveller accommodation, how many Travellers share one meter and how many Traveller families live in overcrowded accommodation. We asked the Minister how it would be rolled out and what the timeline would be. Unfortunately we never received answers to those questions.
Last year I met the Minister of State and he agreed that the credit would not come from Traveller funding and the Traveller community would be treated equally to people who are not living in official Traveller halting sites or Traveller accommodation. We thank the Minister of State for his time and commitment in this area. However, many members of the Traveller community are being left behind and have not received any credit. I will make a long speech short and get right to the questions.
The questions from National Traveller MABS and I are as follows. How will the scheme be rolled out to make sure that every Traveller household will receive a full energy credit? When will the households who missed out on a credit be issued the credit? What is the timeframe for this? What systems have been put in place to make sure that the credits are not being taken from the Traveller accommodation budget? I am aware that the credit that has been taken from the Traveller accommodation budget looks as if it will be reimbursed but how will that happen? National Traveller MABS has requested a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, or the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. Can the Minister of State commit to that meeting today?
Again, I stand here talking about what is not being done for Travellers. However, it is very important to give credit where credit is due when we can, to the Sligo local authority which was very productive. It went to the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications to look for funding and received it. It put in meters for every Traveller family who was impacted and I would like to see more local authorities be as productive as the Sligo local authority. If the Minister of State could answer those three questions I would appreciate that.
Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)
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Before I call the Minister of State I wish to welcome the students from Mitchelstown who are in the Gallery. They are very welcome and I hope they have a very productive and fruitful visit to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Tá cead fáílte mór roimh go léir.
Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I welcome the students from Mitchelstown. I am attending the House on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I will read out the answer he provided for this but I will address those very specific questions Senator Flynn put in the follow-up.
The Government is acutely aware of the impact the recent increases in global energy prices are having on households. Throughout 2022 the Government introduced a €2.4 billion package of supports as part of budget 2023, and has introduced a package of one-off measures worth €2.5 billion. This includes a new electricity costs emergency benefit scheme through which €550.47 exclusive VAT is being credited to each domestic electricity account in three payments. The first payment has been made with the second due in the current January-February billing cycle, and the last and final payment in the March-April billing cycle. The estimated cost of this scheme for more than 2 million domestic electricity households is €1.211 billion. This is in addition to the first electricity costs benefit scheme in April, May and June 2022. Upon the scheme's conclusion on 30 June 2022 more than 2.1 million domestic electricity accounts had received the payment with the value of these payments totalling almost €377 million. This means that 99.36% of all eligible domestic electricity accounts had the credit applied.
The use of the meter point registration number, MPRN, as a unique identifier ensured a very broad reach and no application of means testing. The payment is applied to a domestic electricity account using the single identifier of the MPRN to ensure that it can be administered automatically and without an application. The advantage of the scheme is that it uses the MPRN to identify all domestic electricity accounts and to ensure that payments are made directly and automatically to those accounts without using means testing, application or approval.
Despite this advantage, the original scheme had limitations. As a result there are cohorts that did not receive the payment. One particular cohort, identified since the first scheme, includes a number of Traveller households who use local authority accommodation and who are unable to access the credit. In this situation the MPRN is registered to the local authority and it supplies multiple households. This group is identifiable through the use of local authority accommodation. In approving the second electric costs emergency benefit scheme, the Government also approved funding for this group. This included provision for payment to be made to these households in respect of the first scheme. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has worked with the County and City Management Association, CCMA, on this matter and has written to each local authority. It requested that the local authorities identify and confirm the number of eligible households on local authority sites. Funds were then provided to individual, eligible local authorities at the end of 2022 to enable them to make the necessary payments to these households in their areas. The allocation of these funds to Traveller households is a matter for each local authority. Any delay with the allocation of funds should be raised directly with the relevant local authority.
Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. When this scheme was first rolled out, it did not include Traveller accommodation. That will have to be looked at going forward for other schemes. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, are committed to dealing with this issue. To the best of my knowledge, there are between 300 and 600 Traveller families that have not received a single cent of this electricity credit. That is unfair and unjust and there is really no explanation for it. I have been working with National Traveller MABS, which deals with people who are really on the margins of society, including Travellers who are living on the side of the road or in overcrowded accommodation. I thank the Minister of State for his answers. I will deliver the answers back to National Traveller MABS. I hope there is some way we can organise a meeting with MABS because they are the professionals in terms of how we can get the scheme rolled out.
Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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There are 387 Traveller households affected by this issue. The amount of money transferred to the local authorities was €284,000 to be split between them. That is to cover not just the new three payments but also the original payment that families missed out on. The local authorities were told that they had to use the money and pay it directly to the Traveller families so it should not go into a Traveller accommodation fund.
I have met with the Senator before on this matter. In order to advance this I am happy to meet with her again. I am also happy to meet with National Traveller MABS again. I have been on a call with National Traveller MABS as well to discuss this. I think the Senator was seeking a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I do not know what happened in that regard but I am happy to meet the Senator and the civil servant in charge of administering the scheme to see if there is any problem.
We have now transferred the money to the county councils so if a county council is not giving the money it means there is a problem with the county council. I reiterate that I am not fobbing the Senator off. I am happy to call a chief executive on her behalf and I am happy to deal with a particular case. Sometimes the best thing to do is to follow down one case, to find out what the answer is and that is part of the problem. I will help the Senator in any way I can. If the Senator makes an appointment with me I will sit down with her and National Traveller MABS. We will work with one of the families that did not receive the payment and try to find out why.
Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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It is National Traveller MABS that is doing all this work with the Traveller community.
Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Yes, it is National Traveller MABS that is doing all the work.