A FIFTEEN-FOLD increase in the cost of oil over the past decade has had a hugely adverse effect on the oldest and poorest in society, a Labour Party seminar was told yesterday.
Representatives of environmental and anti-poverty agencies attended the party’s consultation process on its Fuel Poverty Bill in Dublin yesterday.
Opening the seminar, the party’s spokeswoman on energy Liz McManus said the price of oil had risen from $8 a barrel in 1998 to $126 barrel today with the likelihood that it could increase to $200.
She pointed out that higher fuel prices had led to a bonanza for the Government as its revenue from VAT returns had increased by 50 per cent between 2003 and 2007.
Ms McManus said: “For those on low incomes the impact has been disastrous and the number of people who cannot pay their fuel bills has mushroomed.” Ms McManus said her party supported the Government effort to tackle climate change but said it must not come at the expense of low-income families being forced to bear an undue burden compared to the well-off.
“The grant schemes available for people shifting towards renew-ables like solar panels, wood pellets and the like are very much being taken up by people with disposable incomes,” she said.
“The incentives are targeting the guy with the Porsche in the driveway and two other cars in the garage. These are the people who are able to mop up the grants.” She said her proposed fuel poverty legislation would impose a duty on the Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan to publish a strategy that ensured people did not live in fuel poverty.
Prof John Monaghan, the vice-president of St Vincent de Paul (SVP), told the seminar that €3.5 million of its €43 million spending budget was directed at energy-related problems.
Pointing out that, in general, the calls to the SVP had increased by 70 per cent in the Dublin area last year, he said there were particular problems for those living in the private rented sector where the standard of accommodation was poor and where heating bills were sometimes prohibitive.
He said there was a need for smart metering to prevent cumulative bills or bills based on estimates.
He said that an increasing number of people were presenting who were unable to meet their fuel or energy bills.
“This is becoming a huge issue. We need a mechanism where people are not getting huge bills,” he said.
