Vol. 409 No. 6
112 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason a person (details supplied) in Dublin 14 does not qualify for a free natural gas allowance; whether he will consider changing the eligibility rules for obtaining such allowance so as to ensure that persons in receipt of a pension from the Paymaster General are not deprived of such allowances; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
In order to qualify for a free natural gas allowance, a person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment and must either reside alone or only with certain exempted categories of people.
The person concerned is not in receipt of a qualifying payment which, in the case of a claimant over 66 years of age, must be either a social welfare pension or a Garda widow's pension.
The conditions for entitlement to the free natural gas allowance are the same as for the free electricity allowance. Any extension of the conditions for entitlement to these schemes would have financial implications and would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
