asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he is satisfied with the administration of the scheme for fuel allowances under the national fuel scheme; and if he can explain the large variation between counties.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National Fuel Scheme.
1.
The national fuel scheme provides fuel allowances to certain elderly persons and persons depending on long-term social welfare type payments who fulfil certain conditions. The scheme is administered by the health boards, and I am satisfied that the boards are carrying out their functions under this scheme.
The proportion of people in any particular area who qualify for an allowance under the national fuel scheme will depend on a number of factors, such as the number of elderly persons in the area who cannot provide for their fuel needs and whether a scheme of allowances under the urban fuel schemes exists in this area. There is no evidence that the criteria for eligibility for an allowance under the national fuel scheme are applied differently in different health board areas.
Let me draw the Minister of State's attention to the variation in some of the areas. In the community care area of Kerry 6,763 vouchers were issued in 1984-85 and in the area in Donegal with approximately 100,000 people 6,155 vouchers were issued. Coming to my constituency and taking Counties Cavan and Monaghan with a population of over 100,000 only 2,489 vouchers were issued. I would also like to ask the Minister of State if he considers that a more appropriate appeals system might be introduced so that the person who would hear the appeal against the decision not to allow free fuel vouchers would be different from the person who made the decision in the first place.
An analysis has been carried out on the number of recipients in each county by reference to the total population and also of the number of people over 65 in each of the planning regions. From that analysis it would appear that the number of recipients appears to be influenced by the number of aged persons. Another factor accounting for the higher numbers in certain areas is the absence of any towns with urban fuel schemes. Therefore, the presence or absence of such schemes as well as demographic conditions would, accordingly, appear to account to a great extent for variations in the number of recipients rather than any differences in the application of the criteria for eligibility.
The examples that I gave to the Minister of State were three very similar areas in that they are rural with a very high percentage of elderly living there and none of them has towns that would qualify for the 1945 fuel scheme. Surely the Minister of State will accept that there is a very large variation in the examples I gave him. Perhaps he will explain why the number of vouchers issued in Monaghan dropped by 200 over the last two years at a time of rising unemployment and most severe recession.
In Deputy O'Hanlon's constituency it will be seen that County Monaghan shows the lowest number of recipients at 829. That is the lowest in the country as well as the lowest proportion at 16 per 1,000 population. In the course of inquiries from the health board for a possible reason for this it came to light that the figures supplied for County Monaghan do not include part of the county which is dealt with by the Louth community care area. The figure for County Monaghan as a whole in 1983-84 was 1,232 representing 24 per 1,000 population of the county.
A final supplementary.
If you take the community care area of Cavan and two-thirds of Monaghan which makes up the community care area it would be approximately the same size as Kerry or Donegal with much the same division of population and demographic area. Surely the Minister must accept that there is a very large variation when two and a half times as many vouchers are issued in Donegal and Kerry as in the Cavan-Monaghan community care area.
As I stated in the reply, there is no evidence that the criteria for eligibility are applied differently in different health board areas. They all appear to apply the same criteria, but as I explained, there are other reasons which would explain, to some extent at least, the differences.
Will the Minister of State look at the question of the appeals procedure to ensure that an appeal would be heard by somebody different from the person who made the decision in the first place?
We can have a look at the system of appeal but I cannot give an assurance that there will be any change in that. Certainly it will be examined.