Vol. 399 No. 3
14 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he has any plans to alter the duration of the heating season or to change the scope of the free fuel scheme in any other way in 1990-91; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am making a number of important improvements in the national fuel scheme from the start of the next heating season. The national fuel scheme applies to persons in receipt of long-term social welfare payments subject to certain conditions. Up to now a person living with somebody else could qualify for a fuel allowance only if the other person was a dependant, a person providing full-time care and attention where the qualified person was incapacitated, or a qualified person in his or her own right. Thus a person was not entitled to an allowance if he or she was living with somebody in receipt of short-term unemployment assistance. From October a person in this situation who would be otherwise entitled to a fuel allowance will qualify under the scheme.
I am also extending the national fuel scheme to smallholders under the same conditions as apply to other recipients of long term unemployment assistance. These improvements will come into effect from the beginning of the next heating season in October and will benefit some 9,000 additional beneficiaries at a cost of £0.5 million in 1990 and £1.2 million in a full year.
Beneficiaries under the national fuel scheme who are affected by the ban on bituminous coal which will apply to certain areas of Dublin will also receive an additional £3 a week to help minimise the cost to them of smokeless or low-smoke fuel from October next. The duration of the 1990-91 heating season will be the same as last year. It will run for 26 weeks, commencing in mid-October and continuing to mid-April.
We are pleased that the Minister is addressing some of the anomalies in this area but would he not agree that he should have altered the duration of the scheme? Does he not think there is a need to extend the term of the operation of the scheme?
The length of time involved was based on the prevailing temperatures over that period, and the Deputy will find normally that that is when the colder temperatures apply. The Deputy will appreciate that we made a number of improvements to the scheme last year and again this year, by making it available to additional categories of people.
I welcome the extension of the special subsidy for smokeless fuel to additional categories. It is clear that those who are in receipt of a fuel subsidy last year will get £3 extra but, will those who were not in receipt of the subsidy, the new categories who are being included, recipients of unemployment benefit and disability benefit get the additional £3? I welcome the Minister's response to the case I made for them during the Social Welfare Bill.
Yes, it will be added to their benefit.
