Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy correctly stated, community welfare officers have discretion. Since entering the Department of Social Protection, they have been working to share and collate data on how these payments are dealt with across the country. In our discussion last year, I told the Deputy of my surprise that there was an average payment of €300 in respect of holy communions in some areas such as Dublin whereas such payments were not made in other parts of the country. As the Deputy knows, there is no such scheme in the North.

These special payments are given to people in the context of special needs that arise. The suggestion is that such a payment would be in the region of €100 for an adult and €50 for a child. The payment is partly in respect of clothing. As I am sure the Deputy is aware, there has been a significant reduction in recent years in the cost of clothing in shops and stores throughout the country. That reduction has been remarkable in many ways. I have accepted the recommendations made by people involved in the community welfare service.

The Deputy will find that the staff of the Department of Social Protection are always prepared to give their full consideration to specific cases of hardship. In addition to these payments for clothing, we also provide payments to people experiencing difficulties in meeting funeral costs or in kitting out their houses and so on.

It is a not inconsiderable total spend of €47 million, which I expect Deputy Ó Snodaigh will agree is a very significant amount of money. It is interesting that other jurisdictions, including where Sinn Féin is in government itself in the North, do not even have such a scheme, but people pay for it out of their much lesser social welfare payments that apply in the United Kingdom and the North of Ireland.

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