Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 135: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if and when an exceptional needs payment will issue in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare. [41052/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Under the terms of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, an exceptional needs payment (ENP) may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which the applicant is unable to meet out of his/her own resources. There is no automatic entitlement to this payment. Each application is determined by the Executive based on the particular circumstances of the case. Eligible people would normally be in receipt of a social welfare or health service executive payment.

In the case of the person concerned, the Dublin / Mid-Leinster Area of the Executive have advised that, while a number of ENPs have been made in the last year, they currently have no request for an exceptional needs payments from him. It is open to the person concerned to again approach the Executive should he wish to make an application for such a payment.