This morning we heard first-hand stories of families struggling to pay their gas and electricity bills. According to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the average cost of energy bills has increased by €500 per year. Working families and those out of work are simply unable to meet the spiralling costs of gas and electricity. When one hears their stories, they are heartbreaking. In my constituency I have met young mothers who have gone without gas or electricity. I have spoken to fathers hit by wage cuts and tax hikes who have seen their arrears spiral out of control. Many of these families were forced to make a choice between feeding their children or paying their energy bills. The arrears mounted up and the sleepless nights increased. What has been the response of the Government to this? A Labour Party Minister cut the smokeless fuel supplement, increasing costs for people living in cities. A Labour Party Minister cut the fuel allowance payment period by six weeks, wrenching €120 out of the pockets of families struggling to pay their fuel bills. A Labour Party Minister sat back and did nothing as the regulator hiked up gas and electricity costs; as a result, the arrears mount and the sleepless nights increase. Given the Tánaiste's commitment to fairness, as expressed this morning, will he tell these struggling families how he will help them to meet their gas and electricity bills in budget 2014?

I agree that energy costs and the price of fuel have been increasing. As a country, we are on the receiving end of the internationally set price of fuel. We are at the end of a very long pipeline from Russia.

I have looked at the report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and welcome it. In particular, I want to look at where the society focuses attention on what can be done to ease the burden on hard-pressed families in paying their fuel bills. The statement issued by the society states that with some basic investment some homes could become warmer, healthier and cheaper to run. I agree with this. It acknowledges that 250,000 homes have acquired retrofitting measures such as attic and cavity wall insulation, draught proofing and low energy lighting, but it points out that more needs to be done in retrofitting. I agree with this. That is why the Government has concentrated its focus on finding a long-term solution to the high cost of energy which people must bear.

The Government has prioritised scarce resources in the retrofitting of homes through the warmer homes scheme and local authorities. The warmer homes scheme recently retrofitted its 100,000th house and this year the Government's stimulus package included €50 million specifically for retrofitting local authority homes. Also this year the Government committed €18 million to the scheme which will support the delivery of energy efficiency measures to approximately 10,000 homes, resulting in energy savings worth approximately €1.8 million. This is part of the Government's overall affordable energy strategy which we launched in 2011 shortly after the Government was formed because we identified back then that the issues of energy efficiency and energy costs had to be dealt with on a sustainable basis in the period ahead.

The Deputy mentioned low income households specifically. It is fair to state every household in the country is affected by high energy costs and the price of fuel. Last year we decided to focus the affordable energy strategy on households identified as being in poverty, particularly households spending more than 20% of disposable income on energy. I appreciate that I am over time, but I have a list of the changes we have made in this regard and I am quite happy to go into them in much greater detail for the Deputy in the second part of my reply.

When one looks at the figures and the achievement articulated by the Tánaiste with regard to retrofitting, I will be kind and call them modest, but the scale to which the scheme has been rolled out is certainly underwhelming. The Tánaiste must remember that his party promised a €40 million allocation specifically aimed at those suffering fuel poverty. I accept that high energy costs affect everybody and every household, but there is an identifiable group of people who cannot meet their energy bills. Their energy supply is cut off, even after resorting to the use of meters.

The Tánaiste mentioned the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Between 2008 and 2011, just to give a sense of the scale involved, the level of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul's assistance to families for fuel increased from €3.8 million to €10.4 million. That is the trend in what the organisation is dealing with.

A question, please.

I want to know from the Tánaiste specifically what he will do in this budget for people experiencing fuel poverty - those families who cannot pay their bills. What will he do about the fuel allowance and the smokeless fuel support payment? People hear the rhetoric about the "bigger picture" that the Tánaiste delivers that we are on the receiving end of global forces, but that is of no comfort to those whose homes are cold. What does he have in mind and what will he line up? Will he give comfort by saying he will not be as mean-spirited as he was in the last budget, particularly in respect of the fuel allowance?

First, the Deputy has said we undertook to commit €40 million to address the issue of fuel poverty and fuel prices. Last year we committed more than that figure - €50 million - for the retrofitting of local authority homes-----

They are two distinct things.

Let me answer the question. As I said, we have committed €50 million for local authority homes alone and there is also €18 million for the improvement of the warmer homes scheme. This is not a short-term problem. The issue of high fuel prices is not one that can or should be dealt with on a short-term basis. We all know from experience that the price of fuel goes up and down again. Unfortunately, in recent years it has been going up, largely because oil and gas are scarce resources, they are in places that are hard to get to, they must come a long way to get here and we are subject to international pricing. The best way to address this in the long term is to carry out the retrofitting programme that we have set out and to concentrate it in the first instance on families on lower incomes. That is what gets down the cost of heating homes-----

For those who cannot meet their bills, the fuel allowance-----

Please, Deputy.

That is what gets down the cost of heating a home and fuel. We are committed to doing this. Only last week I had a lengthy discussion with the Minister, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, about the plans he had to encourage more people to take up the retrofitting scheme and about the grants and various forms of assistance available through his Department and Sustainable Energy Ireland. We are going to drive this to see to it that more homes are retrofitted and have a greater degree of energy efficiency which has the benefit of bringing down the cost of heating a home and of energy for households. That is the route to be taken.

What about the fuel allowance?

By the way, that is what the Society of St. Vincent de Paul states is the best way of dealing with the problem. It is contained in its report. I welcome the report it has presented. It is timely and that is what it states, that getting more people into the retrofit scheme is the way for us to go.

What about the fuel allowance?