I sought permission to raise this matter on the Adjournment because it appears that the Minister, the responsible person, is uncaring about the needs of the elderly, particularly those living alone, in relation to their heating requirements. The weather we have had in the last five months has been the worst experienced for many years and the elderly have suffered most. While provision was made for free fuel for such people they were left with fuel vouchers because they could not exchange them for fuel. There was no fuel available for a long time. The fuel vouchers could be described as worthless cheques because of that situation. When I stated that people had died from hypothermia I was not exaggerating. Indeed, my medical colleagues corroborated that statement. Doctor John Fleetwood, who is very concerned about the needs of the elderly and has worked very hard on their behalf, admitted this and made a statement to the effect that from what his colleagues had told him the increase in deaths from hypothermia this year had been significant. It is no exaggeration to say that quite a number of people died this year because there was no provision made for their heating needs.
We had a situation that the same people living alone in poor circumstances had their circumstances worsened by the fact that they were deprived of food due to the removal of the food subsidies. The free fuel scheme collapsed and I was inundated with requests from people who had fuel vouchers for up to 11 weeks but could not exchange them for fuel. That was in January and February and I made a private and a public appeal to the Minister to organise a national relief campaign mobilising such services as the Red Cross and other voluntary organisations to provide fuel, electric blankets, ordinary blankets, electric fires and other heating appliances for such people. I asked the Minister to provide the contingency funds that would enable them to use electricity without regard to the number of units used. I did not criticise the Minister but I appealed to his better sense to do something in the circumstances to save the lives of such people. When I mentioned the problem in the Dáil the Minister accused me of trafficking in human misery.
The problem has been brought to light because a number of people have died as a result of the cold. The Minister has the responsibility and could have mobilised the forces of the health boards and voluntary organisations, such as the Red Cross, in a national relief campaign to try to help such people. There was no response from him. That was a great shame. The Minister may argue that there was home help, meals on wheels and other assistance. On paper they are great but I have seen hundreds of cases where home help or meals on wheels were not available to such people. I was engaged daily in giving names to health boards and requesting assistance for such people but friends and relatives later informed me that they had not received any such help, fuel or acknowledgement from the boards.
I recognise that there are problems created by bureaucracy which exist in health boards but if the leadership had come from the Minister the entire community would have been anxious to help. The leadership should have come from the Minister in the allocation of contingency funds or a directive to the health boards to ignore the costs and make sure that funds were provided. A public statement from the Minister on television telling the people that it was a national emergency where old people were concerned would have meant the saving of a lot of those lives. It is a very serious indictment of the Minister, the Department, the health boards and society that a bigger effort was not made to help such people. A few months ago the Cold Comfort Campaign proposed that a national heating scheme be introduced to cover the entire year and be administered by the Department of Social Welfare. I am sure the Minister agrees that the present fuel scheme is grossly inadequate. We have had old people queueing at fuel depots while contractors moved in. Those aged and disadvantaged people were being exploited by members of the public. The scheme is unworkable, archaic and is not meeting the needs of those people. As the Cold Comfort Campaign members asked, those vouchers should be exchangeable for any type of fuel at any shop or used to pay central heating or ESB bills. They also ask that delivery vouchers be given to people who cannot collect the fuel themselves. At present one must prove that one is disabled before qualifying to have the fuel delivered. That situation is not confined to Dublin; it is national. Deputy Eileen Desmond had already highlighted the problems in Cork.
The Cold Comfort Campaign also asked that fires be distributed to such people through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Health Boards have not moved in. Leadership should have come from the Minister in the form of a directive. The Minister may say that he gave instructions that there was provision for that. I told him today that one woman living alone had £13 a week disabled person's maintenance allowance out of which she pays £6 a week rent. I brought this to the attention of the health board, who said they might be able to help with the rent but that it would be some time yet, that they were busy and they might get round to it. The health board have the funds, but because of some bureaucratic bungling what the Minister may have in mind is not getting through to the people concerned. Those people have had to stay in bed all day to try to keep warm in very cold, damp surroundings. This is a terrible indictment of every one of us, particularly the Minister in charge. There is no sign of an abatement of the inclement weather and I ask the Minister now to give a firm promise that he will issue a directive to all health boards that no money is to be spared. He should announce this on television and radio.
