While I welcome the supports available to older people, there is a growing concern that the social welfare system does not address the additional costs associated with advancing age.

What I am asking the Tánaiste to examine, in the context of budget 2027, is additional supports for older people, particularly those over the age of 80 and 90. I am particularly thinking about the fuel allowance. We have 189,000 people over the age of 80 and 29,000 over the age of 90 but not all have an automatic entitlement to the fuel allowance. It is those cohorts of people who are particularly vulnerable to fuel poverty. As I said, only 29,000 people are over the age of 90. Most of them are already in receipt of the fuel allowance but there is a small cohort who are not because they are above the financial threshold. It would be a great step by the Government to consider an automatic entitlement for those people over the age of 90, perhaps first, and then extending it to those over the age of 80.

As is often the way, there is a lot of logic in what the Deputy is suggesting. We have to consider these matters as part of the budgetary process. I am proud that we are in a Government that has significantly expanded the fuel allowance and made sure that more homes and more people than ever before are receiving it. We have increased the amount of the fuel allowance and took the decision to extend the fuel allowance season this year when the energy prices went in a very bad direction globally and in Ireland. The Deputy is making the point that there is a certain cohort of people of an age who still do not qualify and he would like that examined. On foot of his raising this, I will ask the Minister, Deputy Calleary, to give it consideration and come back to the Deputy directly.