Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

There is obviously a heightened focus on control now that the community welfare service is part of the Department. We have three principal objectives. The first is to pay people what they are entitled to be paid; the second is to activate people of working age - if that is an appropriate verb to use - and the third is to apply controls in order that the right person receives the right amount of money. There is that tripartite focus across all of our activities.

By their very nature, exceptional needs payments occur by exception. They are demand-led and there is no budget cap. They are for unforeseen expenses and even the weather can have an impact, in terms of whether it is an urgent needs payment. During instances of flooding, it is precisely this service that was on the ground to provide immediate support for people who faced expenses in that regard.