Michael Moynihan
Ceist:12. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to increase the fuel allowance for the elderly to cover the extended cold period. [11376/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 3 May 2018
Ceisteanna (12)
Freagraí ó Béal (7 píosaí cainte)
This year saw an extended cold period lasting up to recent weeks, but fuel poverty is a consistent issue. The Department must have contingency plans in place for the future, as there is no point in reviewing this matter after a crisis strikes. Will the Minister outline those plans?
I wish I had a contingency budget just sitting around for rainy days, but I thank the Deputy for his question. The fuel allowance is a payment of an extra €22.50 per week from October to April to more than 338,000 lower income households at an estimated cost to the Exchequer of €227 million in 2018. The purpose of the payment is to assist those households with their energy costs. The allowance represents a contribution towards their energy costs only and is not intended to meet those costs in full. As the Deputy is aware, only one allowance is paid per household.
In budget 2018 and with the support of the Deputy's colleague, I extended the duration of the fuel allowance season by one week to 27 weeks, which is more than half of the year. That season is longer than the winter period in Ireland and provides assistance during what are largely colder weeks when heating costs are expected to be at a higher rate. We are having the most wonderful climate change reactions, however. One day it is lovely and warm and the next it is Baltic. The extension of our changing weather patterns needs to be reflected by a quick response from the Department. Given the severity of the weather changes in March, we were able to make an extra week's payment of €22.50, which was desperately needed. I have no further plans in this regard for this year's budget because I do not have a contingency or a reserve, but the Department is preparing a report on fuel poverty for discussion with the social protection committee. This is being done so that, if adjustments to the scheme are required, they can be made within the confines of the budgetary negotiations this year or next year.
I thank the Minister for her reply. That report will be crucial. The Department will have to identify those people who, living predominantly on their own, must rely solely on their pensions to cover their living costs. All of the fuel allowance is accounted for, but some people are still not using their oil heating or putting on fires at various times of the day because the electricity allowance is not high enough to pay for it. We must use a number of approaches to identify these people, in particular elderly individuals. During the heavy snowfall in the last days of February and first days of March, our constituency offices received telephone calls asking what we could do to help people. When adverse weather threatens, the advice is to check on elderly neighbours and friends and vulnerable people. By and large, that gets done because we have a great community spirit, but the real issue - funding - is hidden well under the carpet.
I hope that the report will be finished in the short term and identify people who need the payment period to be extended.
I hope to be able to bring the report to the Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection before the summer. We need a few months to make inroads if we are to avoid making the budgetary negotiations longer and more painful than they need to be. It will give us time to determine what the impacts are, particularly on families on fixed incomes to whom the Deputy referred. However, there are other payments - "schemes" is not the right word - to people on fixed incomes in recognition of the fact that it is difficult to live an entire life and pay for everything the Deputy described on just that single payment. We have the living alone allowance, the fuel allowance and the new telephone allowance, which will be introduced in June.
I am open to considering ways for us to satisfy people's needs, but I want to base that consideration on data, which I hope we will have to hand in the form of the report this summer.
Rather than pension recipients alone, people in receipt of invalidity pensions or the disability allowance also need to be considered. I hope that the report will do so. That younger widows and widowers who are dependent on pensions do not qualify for a number of payments should be considered as well. In truth, I am referring as a whole to households that are solely dependent on social welfare and at risk of poverty, including fuel poverty.
At the moment, the fuel allowance is only paid to a particular cohort of people, but the report that I hope to bring to the committee will not just address them. Rather, it will be a report on fuel poverty. As the Deputy is well aware, poverty knows no doors or windows that can stop it. The report will be all-encompassing and cover every section of society so that we can determine the best changes to be made to our payment supports.
My Department's supports are focused on people who either have no income and, therefore, no support external to what the State gives them or who, being on low incomes, need supplements to have a certain standard of living.
I will take Question No. 13 if Deputy Penrose is willing to forgo its introduction and the Minister's response is short, and there will then be time for a brief supplementary question and answer.