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Social Welfare Benefits

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 March 2022

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Questions (34)

Ruairí Ó Murchú

Question:

34. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Social Protection the actions she will take to urgently address spiralling coal costs to support families facing huge pressures; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14881/22]

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Written answers

The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable households from the impact of energy costs through a combination of supports, energy efficiency awareness initiatives and investment in programmes to improve the energy efficiency of the housing stock. 

With regard to income supports my Department provides a range of schemes to assist with energy costs.  These include -

- The Fuel Allowance which is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (giving a total per recipient of €924 each year) from October to April (estimated to cost €366 million in 2022).

- Electricity or gas allowances under the Household Benefits scheme (at an estimated cost in 2022 of €203 million).

- A special heating supplement under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme.

- Exceptional needs payments to help meet an essential once-off cost which an applicant is unable to meet out of his/her own resources.

- As part of the overall welfare budget package of €600m in increases secured for 2022, I increased the Fuel Allowance payment by €5 per week effective from Budget night.  I also increased the weekly income threshold for Fuel Allowance by €20 which enables more people to qualify for this support. 

- Further Government measures were recently announced to help mitigate the effects of rising energy costs.  As part of these measures totaling over half a billion euro, an additional lump sum payment of €125 was paid to all households in receipt of the Fuel Allowance payment.  It is expected that this additional lump sum will cost an estimated €49 million.

- This payment in addition to the Budget increase will mean low-income households will see an increase of 41% this Fuel Allowance season compared to last season.

- The recently announced Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Payment is another key measure and will be paid in addition to the gas and electricity element of the HHB package to qualifying households.  Approximately 2.1m households will benefit by €200 each from the new scheme. 

- The combined worth of these payment to fuel allowance recipients is €325, which is the equivalent of almost 10 weeks of the Fuel Allowance payment.

- Furthermore, due to the continuing rise in inflation and as part of the economic consequences of the tragic conflict in Ukraine, the Government reduced excise duty on some fuels.

- The provision of any further additional supports would have cost implications and could only be considered while taking account of the overall budgetary context and the availability of financial resources.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

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