UUP wants to ensure that Fuel Poverty Eradication Targets
Speaking during today’s debate on an Ulster Unionist motion on Fuel Poverty, UUP proposer for the motion Roy Beggs said,
“In bringing this motion forward again I was concerned at possible complacency on the part of Department of Social Development Officials.
In entering a new Assembly term we wanted the issue to be fresh on everyones minds. We are now also approaching the winter and the cold and fuel poverty are much more real issues than when we were entering the summer when the last debate came up. But most importantly it is because we are approaching the critical budgeting process.
By having this debate fresh in our minds I hope that all of us will be able to translate it into actions as we approach budget priorities within our committee system and as an assembly as a whole.
There are serious concerns, not least from the Director of National Energy Action, who was delighted that this debate was happening again, that the set objectives to eradicate fuel poverty in vulnerable households by 2010 and by non-vulnerable households by 2016 would be missed.
The UUP is keen to ensure that these dates will most definitely not be missed.”