Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

Well, they have the discretion. It was always the Department's view, when the operations of the community welfare service came into the Department, that it was a very valued piece of activity to be targeted at the most vulnerable and at very specific circumstances. It was not to be constrained by the very procedural, statutory-based rules that apply in many other schemes. However, what I would say is that from work done within the community welfare service itself by groups of people who were community welfare officers, in looking at the practices, procedures and expenditure patterns right across the service, it became very clear that there were great inconsistencies in terms of the level of discretion being applied in different circumstances. There were guidelines produced, and those guidelines have been updated since, to give guidance as to what level of support might be provided in particular instances. I cannot emphasise enough that the discretion still exists with the community welfare officers to go outside those guidelines if they feel the circumstances demand it.