Irish Independent

Have a heart over fuel bills, Leo

- Ita O’Kelly

IGREW up in what was probably the coldest house in Ireland. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I learned that you don’t actually have to go to bed to read a book in comfort. I was raised in an old house with lots of period features but it was freezing and the windows were kept open all year round. Even today I still get a small thrill when I realise that a little digital switch can allow me to turn the heating to what I insist on calling ‘T-shirt temperatur­es’.

Clearly, Leo Varadkar missed the life lesson on heating when he was growing up. His comment in the Dáil last week that the Government doesn’t have a “blank cheque” for anyone, when discussing whether elderly or vulnerable people might receive an additional means-tested fuel payment to cope with the low temperatur­es resulting from Storm Emma or the Beast from the East, said it all.

It was a cold and callous remark. The Government U-turn on the matter the next day, while welcome, indicated a Government removed from the realities of life for many people. Old people have a deeprooted fear of bills, especially those relating to heating and the selfindulg­ence it implies.

In a supermarke­t recently, I said to an old woman standing beside me: “I think you are ahead of me in the queue.” Looking aghast, she replied: “I’m not in any hurry. I can’t afford to turn the heating on until seven this evening.” It was 5pm. She reminded me of my mother. Having endured freezing temperatur­es in her otherwise cosy home, I had the temerity to install storage heaters on one occasion when she was in hospital.

I knew better than to install central heating. It would never have been turned on.

On her return, I embarked on the lengthy ritual of explaining how her new heating system would work.

“Yes, I understand,” she said as I explained how the input and output buttons operated.

“So how do I turn it off?” she asked anxiously.

“Well, it is not possible to turn it off,” I explained.

The colour drained from her face. “What? You can’t turn it off?” she exclaimed, clearly horrified. I smiled inwardly. That was precisely why I had chosen storage heating for her.

You cannot turn the system off instantly.

Heating is an economic issue and a very loaded emotional issue at that. It is utterly miserable to be continuous­ly cold. This is the reality for many people. Leo Varadkar, as Taoiseach, needs to learn that.

And while there are pampered pensioners who live in ambient temperatur­es with property portfolios — and who play a lot of golf in balmy climes like Portugal — many Irish pensioners live meagre lives on impossibly small pensions.

All around Ireland there are elderly people who worked hard and paid taxes to build this country, who live in freezing cold ice-boxes, without any insulation or any modern form of heating. Being warm remains a luxury for many.

Who could begrudge them the grand sum of a one-off additional payment of €22.50?

This amounts to a total of €8.5m, a tiny proportion of the total annual budget of €20bn for the Department of Social Protection. All Government department­s have contingenc­y funds for emergencie­s anyhow.

Many elderly people without private health insurance bear the brunt of a dysfunctio­nal health service which does not deliver a dignified or timely service, no matter which way you spin it.

WE need to get away from the notion that it is down to the largesse of Government to provide people with what they are, by right, entitled to. This notion of looking for things for nothing or looking for blank cheques is wide of the mark. Government’s job is to allocate resources generated by the taxpayer to those who need them. It is not a crime to be poor or in need.

People who qualify for such a fuel payment have an entitlemen­t to it.

Many elderly and vulnerable people rely heavily on the winter fuel allowance. And they are people who would be far too dignified to beg, retrospect­ively, for an emergency fuel allowance. Charles Haughey had a chequered political career, but he had a unique understand­ing that small acts of kindness by government mean a great deal to those who are the beneficiar­ies. He understood the needs of the ‘little people’. He introduced free travel for elderly people, which was revolution­ary in its social impact in the late 1960s. Elderly people were no longer prisoners in their homes.

To this day you can see groups of pensioners having a day out on the Dublin to Belfast train, even if they are only buying a few groceries in Newry. To hear them laugh and have fun together is nice, even if I have been fleeced for €40 for my ticket.

Mr Haughey was also responsibl­e for starting subsidised electricit­y for pensioners, another initiative that was hugely appreciate­d and appropriat­e. And money was too tight to mention back then.

When I visited China a few years ago, I was struck very forcibly by the dignity and deference offered to their elderly people. Far from being regarded as a nuisance or a burden, they were celebrated for their wisdom and what they had contribute­d to society.

Government collective­ly – and it is worth rememberin­g that we do have a Cabinet of 15 rather than a presidenti­al style of government like the United States – must have a heart. All the better if that is a warm heart.

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