16,000 households locally will begin to get monies under the Fuel Allowance Scheme from today.
7,100 in Carlow with 9,300 in Kilkenny are among 465,000 nationwide eligible for the 2026/’27 season during which there’s a weekly rate of €38 or two €532 installments in a 28-week stretch. (More on the scheme here).
Aim is to help cover the costs of heating homes during the winter months.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary says the scheme’s been expanded this year to make it available to more people.
Meanwhile, An Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the Government will take a wide range of measures in the Budget to try to help people with the cost of living amid the energy crisis.
His comments follow a meeting organised by a group of fuel protestors in the Midlands yesterday.
The Taoiseach, says the energy crisis has created a very serious situation, noting; “Over the last year the Government has taken a range of measures to try and alleviate the pressures on families as a result of the fuel and energy crisis brought about by the war in the Middle East and particularly the US/Iran war and also of course the Ukraine/Russian situation, all of which has exacerbated prices and has created a very serious situation; people have a right to protest but equally it has to be done in a proper framework”.
Carlow Kilkenny TD Peter ‘Chap’ Cleere has this reaction;
