Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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611. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of introducing a second band of fuel allowance for persons on fixed incomes. [37312/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks at an estimated cost of €366 million in 2022. It is a targeted payment to people dependent on specified long-term social welfare payments. The purpose of this payment is to assist those households most in need with their energy costs.

Taking account of the fact that the Fuel Allowance is a household-based payment and that qualification is not just based on the means test but on a number of other complex qualifying criteria such as household composition, it is not possible for my Department to provide an accurate projection of the potential cost of the measures outlined by the Deputy.

My Department also does not maintain records of households that are on fixed incomes.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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612. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of introducing an autumn bonus across all social welfare payments. [37313/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated cost of introducing an autumn bonus across all social welfare payments, based on a double week's payment, is in the region of €313 million. This is based on the cost of last year's Christmas Bonus and assumes qualifying criteria remains the same.

The costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients.