Pauline Tully (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support what Senator Boyhan raised. I know all too well on the ground the number of people who have had home care hours approved but cannot get the carers to fulfil them. It is a significant problem in my county of Cavan and other counties around me.

I wish to raise the continuing difficulties people face with the humanitarian assistance scheme following Storm Éowyn. People are now getting letters rejecting their claims for assistance, seemingly for different reasons. Some are being told they cannot claim for lost freezer or fridge contents because that is covered by insurance but it is not, as by the time someone pays the excess on an insurance policy, several hundred euro has already gone. Most fridge or freezer contents would amount to a few hundred euro, so unless a person is making a bigger claim for something and includes them in the claim on the insurance, the insurance does not cover them, yet the humanitarian assistance scheme is refusing to cover them. People have had to throw out food and eat out or get takeaways, which has caused a lot of extra expense. A lady received a reply that stated that, because her application was not received until 19 February, it would not be accepted. To my knowledge, though, this scheme had no closing date. If there was a closing date, it should have been well flagged.It is not mentioned anywhere on the website or in departmental literature. I do not know why the forms were still available if the scheme was closed.

The payment was not means tested. I know of some quite wealthy people who applied for the scheme and were granted money. In fairness, they were out money as a result of the loss of power. I would love to know what the criteria were for the scheme because different people have got different amounts of money while some have been refused and will receive nothing at all. I imagine it should be based on the number of days a person was without power and the number of people in a family. That would seem to be a fair way. If you are without power for five or 12 days, you are going to be out costs, and more the longer you are without power, and then there is the number of people in your family. If the Ceannaire could get some clarification on the scheme and how it was administered, I would appreciate it.