The government has launched a process to check the number of persons per household for the purposes of the energy grant announced in the last Budget.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said during a radio interview this afternoon that lessons had been learned from the recent distribution of energy saving bulbs. That distribution was based on the number of persons per household as shown on the water and electricity bills.

However there had been some 7,000 cases where the number of persons shown on the bill was not a true reflection of the size of the household.

Many of these cases involved people living in rented properties where the bills were still issued to the landlords.

Mr Fenech said that in order to avoid a repetition of this problem, the data from the water and electricity bills was being compared to data supplied from the Public Registry. When there was a mismatch, the authorities would write to the tenants asking them to explain.

Mr Fenech said this process was expected to be completed by the middle of the year, when the energy benefits would start to be issued.

The benefits are aimed at easing the burden of the increase in water and electricity tariffs.