Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 572: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if a supplementary welfare diet supplement payment will be reinstated to a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18488/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 03rd March 2012. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. These papers were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 05th April 2012 and the appeal will, in due course, be assigned to an Appeals Officer for consideration.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions on social welfare entitlements.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 573: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reasons a person (details supplied) in County Kildare has a means payment determined against their rent allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18491/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The person concerned is in receipt of her full rent supplement entitlement. Her disability allowance payment is €188 per week. In assessing means for rent supplement purposes any income above the supplementary welfare allowance rate of €186 per week is taken into account. Hence the €2 differential has been taken into account in this assessment and the person's entitlement has been adjusted accordingly.

Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 574: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the criteria used for qualifying for payments in respect of communion and confirmation from her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18499/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. These ENP payments are a vital component of the SWA scheme and link the income support function of the scheme with the wider welfare role of the Department's community welfare service.

There is no automatic entitlement to a payment, ENP's are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case.

A review of the guidelines on ENPs has recently been carried out by the Department by a working group made up of former community welfare service staff. One of the recommendations from the Group was to address the different approaches taken, in different areas, in relation to the payment of exceptional needs payments in respect of religious ceremonies and to ensure that the SWA scheme is responding to a specific financial need and not to the occasion.

At present, where the Department is satisfied that an exceptional need exists, it is now recommended that a maximum payment of €110 can be made in respect of the religious ceremony. This will be the first step towards limiting these payments to cases of significant hardship only, in 2013.