Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the total number of persons in receipt of the humanitarian assistance scheme in 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012; the number in receipt broken down by county; the total costs of the payment in 2010, 2011 and estimated total costs in 2012; her plans for the future of the payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47536/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies and the Office of Public Works has responsibility for capital flood relief activities. However, the Department of Social Protection has an important role to play in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of emergency events such as the flooding of November 2009, October 2011 and June 2012. A humanitarian aid scheme was approved by Government in response to these floods. The humanitarian aid scheme, which is means tested, is available to people whose homes were damaged in the flooding and who are not in a position to meet costs for essential needs, household items and in some instances structural repair as a result of the flooding damage. Payments issued to householders affected by these floods as follows.

Following the 2009 flooding, 2,100 payments were made at a value of approximately €1 million during 2010. The majority of these payments were made in counties Galway and Roscommon. The counties mainly affected by the autumn 2011 flooding were Dublin and Monaghan. Payments to the value of €879,073 have been paid to date in respect of 952 claims in Dublin and €28,767 in respect of 46 claims in Monaghan. The total paid during 2011 in respect of these counties was approximately €359,000. Following the June 2012 flooding, over 100 payments have been made to affected householders in the Cork area to the value of €108,500. Total payments to the value of €752,300 have been made in 2012 under the humanitarian aid scheme. Based on the scheme expenditure to date, it is estimated that expenditure for the full year will be in the region of €900,000. Any changes to this scheme will be considered in a budgetary context.