40,000 in Galway having a cold Christmas
More than 40,000 people in Galway are enduring a ‘Tiny Tim’ Christmas this year, because they cannot afford to pay fuel bills to heat their homes.
The shocking figure is included in a new report compiled by trade union Unite which is based on Central Statistics Office and EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions figures.
It claims that thousands of households in the city and county are suffering from fuel deprivation.
Rather than face the ‘January blues’ of fuel bills on top of other bills and Christmas, many homes will be left in the cold over the next few weeks.
According to the report, ‘A Cold Christmas’, an estimated 41,100 people in Galway have had to go without heating during the past 12 month through lack of money, and have had to go without a fire on a cold day, or go to bed to keep warm, or light the fire late because of lack of coal or fuel.
It found that across the country, more than 700,000 people were unable to afford heating at some point during the year, and adjusts them for county-level income figures to arrive at a county-by-county estimate.
Dublin had the highest figure at 164,000 people; followed by Cork at 82,200; Galway at 41,100; Kildare at 32,500; Donegal at 30,700 and Meath at 30,000.
The lowest figures were in Leitrim (5,500), Longford (7,300), Carlow (10,100), Sligo (11,000) and Monaghan (11,400).
The union’s Regional Secretary, Jimmy Kelly, said: “As we head into Christmas, over 41,000 people in Galway City and County are afraid to heat their homes sufficiently because they won’t be able to afford their fuel bill in January.
“Fuel deprivation impacts on the personal dignity, health and wellbeing of those directly affected. It diminishes family life at home and can impact on productivity at work."
For more on fuel poverty in Galway, see this week's Galway CIty Tribune