Debate contribution: Home Heating Oil Support

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 18 May 2026.

MLA: Mr Matthew O'Toole
Party at the time: Social Democratic and Labour Party
Date: 18 May 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Heading: Home Heating Oil Support
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5548570

Text

Minister, I welcome the additional detail that you have given us. We have never been churlish about the home heating oil support package — it was a welcome, if belated, step from the Executive — so I welcome the fact that it exists. However, Brent crude still costs more than $100 a barrel — the price for 900 litres is way above the historical average, as you know — and it appears that the instability in the Middle East will continue, given who is in the White House, so I ask you to work constructively with your Executive colleagues to prepare the additional support that might need to be provided to households later in the year. Notwithstanding the fact that support eventually arrived and was welcome, the spectacle earlier in the year —

133 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Part of an exchange

This follow-up belongs to: Oral question AQO 3572/22-27.

Assessment

Not analysed

This is the same MLA’s follow-up within the exchange on their own question. It is analysed together with that question and is not counted separately, so one question is never counted twice.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification