LONGFORD ENVIRONMENTAL ALLIANCE

The following articles appeared in the Longford Leader from October 2007 as part of "How We Live Our Lives" series.

Poverty – Fuel Poverty

By Ray Hogan

Over the past number of weeks we have being examining How we live our lives in an environment of full and plenty, however there is another side to our society for which we not as proud to cover. In this article I intend to look at poverty in Ireland with a particular reference to Fuel Poverty.

Defining Poverty

The Irish Government's National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 uses this definition of poverty:

"People are living in poverty if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living which is regarded as acceptable by Irish society generally. As a result of inadequate income and other resources people may be excluded and marginalised from participating in activities which are considered the norm for other people in society."

What this means is that people are living in poverty if they do not have enough money to do the things that most people in Ireland take for granted. Poverty can mean not having the money to buy enough food for your family, not being able to afford to heat your home in winter or having to buy second-hand clothes because you can't afford new ones.

Poverty is more than not having the money for material things. It can also mean that you don't have the money for social activities like going to the cinema or having a meal out with friends or to have a holiday. This can lead to people feeling cut off from the rest of society because they don't have the money to participate.

Types of Poverty

In Ireland, data on poverty is collected and published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Two measures of poverty are used by the CSO to calculate the rate of poverty in Ireland: at risk of poverty and consistent poverty.

At Risk of Poverty

This type of poverty is also known as relative poverty. This means having an income that is below 60% of the median income (the median is the mid-point on the scale of incomes in Ireland). In 2005, that was an income of below €192.74 a week for an adult.

Consistent Poverty

This means having an income below 60% of the median and also experiencing enforced deprivation. This means being on a low income and not being able to afford basic necessities such as new clothes, not having the money to buy food such as meat or fish, not being able to heat your home, or having to go into debt to pay ordinary household bills.

Causes of Poverty

There are a number of factors that contribute to the existence of poverty. The uneven distribution of economic resources such as wealth, employment and infrastructure, and of social resources like health services, education, transport and housing, means that not all people have the same opportunities.

There are also other factors that make people more likely to be poor. One single factor might not be significant on its own, but when these factors are combined they increase the risk of poverty. Factors contributing to poverty include:

Work: being unemployed or in a low-paid job makes people more likely to be poor.
Age: older people and children whose parents are poor are at greater risk of poverty than the general population.
Health: people with long-term illnesses or who are disabled are at greater risk of poverty.
Education: people who left school early or without qualifications are more likely to experience poverty.
Family: one-parent families are more likely to be poor than two-parent families or single people.
Location: living in a disadvantaged community or in an area with few employment opportunities increases the risk of poverty.

Fuel poverty.

Fuel poverty occurs when a household needs to spend more than 10% of their income on energy in order to maintain an acceptable level of heat throughout their home.

In the 1970’s Fuel poverty was defined as “The inability to afford adequate heat because of energy efficiency in the home” However, by 2001 this definition was given a more comprehensive definition as “The ability to heat ones home to an adequate (safe and comfortable) temperature owing to low income and poor (energy efficiency) housing”.

Acceptable indoor temperatures have been defined by the World Health Organization as 21°C in the living room and 18°C in all other rooms. For older people, higher indoor temperatures are recommended.

Fuel poverty arises as a result of the relationship between household income, energy efficiency of the dwelling and fuel prices.

Extensive research was commissioned by Energy Action in 1999 in which the link between housing conditions and energy poverty in Ireland was examined and the following were the key points from this report;

Fuel poverty in Ireland is among the highest in Europe.
Irish housing standards are amongst the lowest in northern Europe.
The least well off tend to live in the worst of these houses and the share of income they devote to heating can be in excess of three higher than the average household.
Excess morbidity and mortality in Ireland is due to poor housing standards and is amongst the highest in Europe.
Ireland will have great difficulty in meeting its agreed targets for greenhouse gas emissions, which are mainly associated with energy consumption.

The report found that there would be considerable long-term economic, environmental, health and social benefits if the thermal efficiency of the Irish housing stock was increased to the requisite levels.

Ray Hogan is a founder member of both Longford Environmental Alliance (www.l-e-a.org) and Rathcline Sustainable Projects Group (www.rspg.ie) and a registered Building Energy Rating Assessor

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