Ms Jackie Harrington:

In the case of social welfare payments, a person can bring the issue of the payment to the Ombudsman. The only payments that an individual in direct provision gets from the Department of Social Protection are the exceptional needs payments and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, neither of which are appealable to the social welfare appeals office for anyone in the State. My understanding is that if an individual has a query about those payments, he or she could bring them to the Ombudsman. I am not aware of any. None has ever been brought to my attention, given the once-off nature of those payments. I see no reason why an individual could not query with an ombudsman if they had an issue about an exceptional needs payment.