Senior peer Lord Rogan has strongly criticised the UK Government after Energy Minister Lord Callanan admitted to him in a Parliamentary Written Answer that energy payments to Northern Ireland households were still “weeks” away at best, with a separate scheme to compensate local heating oil users also yet to be finalised.
Last month, Lord Rogan tabled a Parliamentary Question asking the Government “when and by which mechanisms households in Northern Ireland will receive financial assistance with their energy bills.”
In his reply, just published, Lord Callanan said: “The Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £700 this winter. This is on top of existing government plans to give all households £400 off their energy bills through the Energy Bill Support Scheme. A comparable scheme to the Energy Bill Support Scheme is being developed to deliver £400 to households in Northern Ireland. Details of how this will run will be announced in the coming weeks and payments will be backdated to October.
“The Government is working with electricity suppliers to explore how the £100 Alternative Fuel payment could be delivered to homes in NI that use alternative fuels for heating, such as heating oil or LPG, instead of mains gas via electricity bills under a similar delivery model.”
Lord Rogan
Responding, Lord Rogan described the Energy Minister’s answer as “further evidence that the Government is failing the people of Northern Ireland as we enter the most difficult of winters.”
He said: “Gas and electricity customers in the rest of the UK are already receiving monthly payments to help with soaring energy bills, and yet consumers in Northern Ireland have been left entirely unprotected in the midst of a cost of living crisis with no financial help seemingly in sight. There is no sense of urgency, no wish to take responsibility and no hint of shame.
“The Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, has already suggested this week that the absence of a functioning Ireland Executive at Stormont is largely to blame. But that has been the reality for many months and yet the UK Government has chosen not to act.
“The situation is grossly unacceptable and must be urgently resolved. The people of Northern Ireland are being let down yet again.”