Gas customers ineligible for Emergency Fuel Support
Call for call on the Utility Regulator to investigate Firmus decision
Pressure group, Derry Against Fuel Poverty has described news, gas customers will not benefit from heat support via the Derry City and Strabane District Council's Emergency Fuel Support Programme as "devastating".
Spokesperson Sinead Quinn said: "We're absolutely devastated for gas customers in the Derry and Strabane District Council area that were hoping to apply for help with heat from this fund this winter. We pushed hard for the establishment of this fund which was so important in the absence of an Executive.
"It is absolutely shameful that Firmus Gas have not moved mountains to facilitate gas customers accessing support via the scheme when oil and electricity companies were able do so without much issue. This isn't a time for excuses, it's time for pulling together and going the extra mile. But Firmus don't seem to have any sense of corporate responsibility whatsoever.
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"Gas heating is the preferred home heating system in new build social housing developments across Northern Ireland. Maybe it's about time Department for Communities considered alternative forms of heat if gas suppliers are so unwilling to meet their own regulatory responsibilities to their customers during the worst attack on living standards in fifty years.
"Whilst it's now too late for the people of Derry and Strabane, we call on the Utility Regulator to investigate and address the issue immediately so that other council areas do not encounter the same resistance."
"Derry Against Fuel Poverty remains committed to highlighting the struggle for those of us on low incomes, in and out of work, and will keep on fighting, whatever way we can, in the absence of a resolution to this ongoing crisis."