300,000 to get fuel top-up to help keep heating on

MORE than 300,000 households are to automatically get a payment of €22.50 to help pay for extra fuel during the cold snap.

The Government relented in the face of calls for the fuel allowance to be doubled as a way of encouraging older people to keep their heating on.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty denied the move was a climbdown, insisting she did not want to make any announcement until she was sure it was a deliverable promise.

An Post will now work to administer the extra allowance, although it could be up to three weeks before all recipients are paid. Ms Doherty said it was “not a standalone payment” so it depended when people would expect their usual social welfare money.

“Some scheme payments to be paid next week have already gone through the banking system and the Department’s IT system, so those people will not get their payment until probably the week after,” Ms Doherty said. On Tuesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (pictured) told the Dáil he could not write a “blank cheque” for people.

He was responding to Opposition calls for an increase in the fuel allowance, based on comments by Minister for Older People Jim Daly, who urged people to keep their heat on 24 hours a day as temperatures plummeted.

However, Ms Doherty said “finding the money” was “probably the easiest bit”.

She has also held talks with St Vincent de Paul about ways of identifying families who will need extra support to fend off the worst of the weather.

The Department of Social Protection is also operating an emergency needs payment and urgent needs pay – which can be received following an assessment by social welfare officials.

There is no limit for how much they pay out, but it will be based on specific needs.

“Anybody who needs to get money will get that,” she said.

Asked about Mr Daly’s comments, she replied: “We are all on the same team.”

In the Dáil, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he was “glad the Government has undertaken a U-turn”.

“It is worrying that the issue was not anticipated. We know that on occasions like this, cold weather and deep freezes can affect the elderly most,” he said.

Mr Martin said the Government should now consider advancing additional financial supports to non-governmental organisations that are dealing with the homeless and with families in poverty.

“It is incumbent on the Government to support organisations like the Peter McVerry Trust, the Simon Community and Focus Ireland that are working on the streets to bring the homeless in. Heroic efforts are being made,” he said.