THE GOVERNMENT IS being urged to take decisive action to tackle energy poverty and break Ireland’s reliance on fossil fuel home-heating ahead of next winter.
The Government has said that the Dialogue is not intended to produce specific budget proposals or recommendations. Speaking in advance of the event today, Finance Minister Michael McGrath acknowledged that “the increase in the cost of living and high inflation have created difficulties for many in our society”.“We must also be conscious that our economy is now at full-employment, and it is important that budgetary policy does not add to inflation – to put it another way, budgetary policy cannot become part of the inflation problem,” he said.
Fleachta Phelan, senior policy associate at Disability Federation of Ireland, said: “Disabled people have long lived with higher than average energy bills, due to the many extra costs of having a disability”.