Stormont Finance Minister John O’Dowd has said any Government subsidy for those who use heating oil to warm their homes must be “meaningful”.
Mr O’Dowd wrote to the Treasury last week calling for a financial intervention over the cost of the energy price spike caused by the war in the Middle East.
Mr O’Dowd told the BBC that the powersharing Executive did not have the “financial wherewithal to make a meaningful contribution to support hard-pressed working families”.
The Prime Minister will make a heating oil announcement later on Monday after Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Treasury officials had “found the money” to help the 1.5 million households relying on the fuel.
Around two-thirds of homes in Northern Ireland use home heating oil.
Mr O’Dowd said: “While we welcome the fact that we now have a clear indication from the Government that there will be a financial intervention, it is going to have to be meaningful, it is going to have to be delivered quickly and it is going to have to make a difference to those who are facing financial crisis.
“We haven’t been given the detail of any scheme, my officials will be engaging further today with Treasury.”
He added: “If it is around £50 million, over a million properties, then the maths is quite simple on that one, it is around £50 per qualified household.
“We have to see if it falls directly under the control of the Executive, then those decisions will be for the Executive to be made.
“If it is in that region of £50 million then I do think the Executive is going to have to have a conversation around how we best use that money to target those most in need.”
Facing a Stormont committee on Monday, Sinn Fein Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald accused the DUP of “peddling mistruth and misinformation” in relation to energy bill support funding.
Last week Ms Archibald had been criticised by the chairman of the Economy Committee, DUP MLA Phillip Brett, who highlighted that an announcement in the Chancellor’s spring statement made £81 million of funding available to Stormont to reduce energy bills and claimed the department had not yet submitted a business case to the Treasury for funding.
On Monday Ms Archibald denied that departmental officials were not aware of the funding until it was brought to their attention by Mr Brett, saying the funding came from annually managed expenditure (AME) which is “tightly controlled by the British Government and is used to deliver schemes here that align with those in Britain”.
The Economy Minister further stated that “any deviation from the scheme in Britain would need to be agreed with the British Government”.
“I believe it’s irresponsible to build people’s hopes up that this funding could be targeted differently,” she said.
Mr Brett questioned the timeline of correspondence between the Treasury and the department and concluded the meeting saying: “We still don’t have a delivery mechanism, so I think we just need to encourage the department to try and get this delivery mechanism delivered as soon as possible.”
