Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the work of the Minister and his Department on this scheme. Along with many colleagues, I have brought several queries to the Minister and he has responded in a timely manner, which I acknowledge. Every Member wants schemes like the humanitarian assistance scheme to work for people who deserve them, who are entitled to them and who have suffered, in this case, as the result of a storm. Nobody in this House wants to see people who were affected not getting the out-of-pocket expenses they incurred for things they would not normally have to buy while they were without power covered.

In my experience, I have found the scheme to be really messy. I have found a plethora of responses to forms. Just yesterday, I was contacted by a gentleman who had put in for costs incurred while without power and for hotel expenses. He got a letter in the post yesterday. It was just a blank form with a Post-it note. There was no cover letter. He now has to go back to the hotel to ask for another receipt despite submitting one a month ago. I gave him the number for the public telephone line and he contacted it today. He was told that his application had been received and was on the system but that it cannot be processed. I have no idea what that means. He said the person on the phone was very helpful but that he has to do the form again. I know of a few cases of people who have just got the form in the post without any details or letter.

I have also been caught out myself. For example, I have told people that fridge freezers are not covered only to be told that Mary down in the other place got hers covered. There seems to be a variety of responses depending on which officer deals with a case. That has been a big part of the inadequacy and messiness of the scheme. Some people get an amount and are happy enough but others are really unhappy. Last week, I got a call from a lady who had been without power for 14 days. People ring me to tell me they got €150 after being without power for 15 days. They ask how that sounds. I try to advise them as best I can. While there has to be discretion in a scheme like the HAS, better guidelines are needed. There should be one set of guidelines for all staff members dealing with the scheme. Unfortunately, we have not seen that. There have been a variety of refusals. I mentioned a case of receipts being sought in February when receipts were not required for the HAS 1 form unless applicants had them. There has been a big issue for farmers and businesses, particularly farmers whose sheds had been damaged. In some cases, this was the second or third time damage had been done due to a storm but there was no support at all for them. I ask that there be a full review of this scheme, how it functioned after the storm, where it has and has not worked and the lessons we can learn from that.

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