Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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169. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her Department assists with secondary school costs for twins, other than the clothing and footwear allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43505/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. The Government has provided €48.8m for the scheme in 2013 assisting some 180,000 families.

Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Government has provided over €47 million for the scheme in 2013. There is no automatic entitlement to a payment or predetermined amounts under the different categories for exceptional needs payments. It should be noted that ENPs are not intended to cover circumstances where responsibility rests with another Government Department.