Ms Jackie Harrington:

I am not aware of a case in which an individual in direct provision has gone to the Ombudsman about a query on their exceptional needs payments. I am not aware of that. I have never seen one of those cases. It is very rare that I would see any type of case made to an ombudsman's office on an exceptional needs payment. Given the nature of an exceptional needs payment, which is an essential emergency once-off payment, that kind of lengthy process would not normally arise.