Fine Gael TD Deirdre Clune has written to Social Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin asking her to consider providing emergency fuel allowance payments to vulnerable people suffering as a result of the bad weather.

The bad weather over the last few weeks has been particularly difficult for many vulnerable people, especially older people, some of whom have become prisoners in their own homes.

Many people on low incomes who currently face financial difficulty, as a result of the loss of the Christmas Bonus or reduced social welfare payments including blind and disabled payments, are not heating their homes despite the cold weather in an attempt to save money.

I believe Minister Hanafin must consider additional fuel allowance payments to relieve this suffering. A clear statement from the Minister that there would be an emergency fuel allowance payment would allow people currently facing these difficulties to spend more on heating their homes now.

We are facing the longest spell of cold weather in almost 50 years. This will have a devastating impact on those people living in fuel poverty. Just last month, the Institute for Public Health’s Annual Report on Fuel Poverty called fuel poverty a ‘major concern’ and believed the Republic had a fuel poverty rate approaching 10% in 2007 before the economic downturn.

The Fuel Allowance payment is a weekly payment of €20 per household for 32 weeks from the end of September to May. The payment is for vulnerable people who are unable to provide for their own heating needs and who are dependent on long-term social welfare or HSE payments. Those who receive the fuel allowance include the elderly, disabled people, blind people, lone parent families and the long term unemployed.