Social Welfare Benefits
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-30
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

We have made considerable changes to the fuel allowance in recent years. We have considerably increased the disallowance in the context of means. A lot more people have qualified for it. We have gone from €290.4 million in 2020 to €557.4 million in 2026. A total of 470,000 households qualify. We need to do more work on the living alone allowance to cater specifically for the kind of cohorts that the Deputy spoke about. In many cases, for the fuel allowance and somebody living on their own, many people will qualify. We will do some more work around communicating the new means. I will be specifically targeting the living alone allowance to address that kind of cohort of people, particularly those who are left on their own, either by death or separation, with large expenses. The Deputy is absolutely right. We have the retrofit programmes and various support programmes, but for many older people it is a very big project to take on. I am going to be doing a lot of work in that space.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-30