Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Exceptional and urgent needs payments are being paid out immediately by community welfare officers for people who need immediate basics such as food, shelter, accommodation, bedding and furniture. The welfare officers have been paying that and will continue to pay it. Those payments are not a cash limited fund because they are made on a one-to-one basis based on the needs of the person. We expect welfare officers to continue paying these over the next few weeks.

The humanitarian assistance will be a means tested payment, but we will aim to ensure that we do not have huge bureaucracy attached to it. It will largely cover people who do not have insurance. The assistance will kick in when the clean-up starts, which will be over the next few days when people start to identify what they need to replace in their homes in order to facilitate them going back into their homes. Humanitarian assistance is targeted at that area.

We will also will also try to identify those in most need of assistance within the groups, such as those who have been made homeless, elderly people, people with young children and people with disabilities, and try to prioritise their needs.

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