FAILURE TO tackle growing rates of fuel poverty could lead to an increase in the number of excess winter deaths in Ireland, the Institute of Public Health has warned.
Speaking at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs, the institute’s senior policy adviser, Dr Helen McAvoy, said rising fuel prices were placing vulnerable households such as older people under increasing financial strain.
Research by the institute indicates that the island of Ireland has among the highest levels of excess winter mortality in Europe, with an estimated 2,800 more deaths over the winter months.
Studies have estimated that 44 per cent of excess winter deaths in Ireland are directly associated with poor housing standards.
Meanwhile, Central Statistics Office figures to May 2008 show an 11 per cent increase in the cost of home fuels in the past year.
Presenting the institute’s position paper on fuel poverty to the committee yesterday, Dr McAvoy said there was no clear leadership and no structure for co-ordination to tackle fuel poverty.
“In the absence of a designated structure, fuel poverty is falling between a number of stools and the formation of an inter-departmental fuel poverty group, similar to the model in place in Northern Ireland, is necessary.”
Fuel poverty occurs when people live in cold, damp, and thermally inefficient houses. It is defined as when a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent of its income on energy in order to maintain an acceptable level of heat throughout their home.
A recent report by Sustainable Energy Ireland estimates more than 145,000 households here are experiencing fuel poverty.
Northern Ireland’s fuel poverty strategy – published in 2004 – has committed to eliminate fuel poverty by 2020.
As part of this, the prevalence of fuel poverty is monitored every few years.
However, there is no such monitoring in the Republic.
