Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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389. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the means test for the fuel allowance can be examined (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41121/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €382 million in 2024. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. Only one allowance is paid per household.

The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the Fuel Allowance payment, a person must satisfy all the qualifying criteria including the household composition criteria. This ensures that the Fuel Allowance payment goes to those who are more vulnerable to fuel poverty, including those reliant on social protection payments for longer periods and who are unlikely to have additional resources of their own.

The increased allowable means threshold for people who are married, cohabiting or in a civil partnership, acknowledges that the overall cost of living for this cohort is higher than for a single person. My Department pays an Increase for a Qualified Adult on many of its primary payments in recognition of this.

In Budget 2025 the Government did provide for a €12 weekly increase to all of the main social welfare payments; an October cost of living bonus; a Christmas bonus in December; and a €200 once-off payment for pensioners and people with a disability receiving the Living Alone Increase, in November 2024.

Finally, the Department of Social Protection provides Additional Needs Payments as part of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. Payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of the legislation, and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.