Poverty Data
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-18
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

The fuel allowance is paid to many people, such as pensioners, but it is paid to allow them make decisions about their own fuel and energy. I am certainly open to ideas as to how we make sure it can help people directly with fuel payments. People's fuel demands and fuel bills are different, depending on their use of fuel, what kind of heating systems they have and where they live. The whole basis of the fuel allowance, which we increased by €5 per week and extended by four weeks, is that people have the choice to use that money to make the payment for their fuel in whatever way they want. We have seen proposals and had proposals and debate about how that gets targeted but I am not sure, by taking away people's choice, whether we will worsen the situation inadvertently. There are proposals that we should give it directly to energy companies but I am not convinced that will work. For many people, that might not be their fuel pressure in terms of income. I am very open to proposals on how we can use the fuel allowance to ensure we have more targeting. I look forward to the proposals in the Deputy's budget submission.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-18