Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent)
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501. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if an allowance will be given to a person's cost of medication if they were to lose their current medical card and who previously was covered by the long term chronic illness medical scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13322/14]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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515. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications that were made to community welfare officers for exceptional needs payments in February 2013 and February 2014 per county, respectively. [13426/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 501 and 515 together.

Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) 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 €31.3 million for the ENP scheme in 2014.

There is no automatic entitlement to an ENP. ENP’s are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

The ENP scheme is not intended to cover circumstances where responsibility rests with another Government Department or Agency such as assistance towards medication costs. Responsibility for medication costs under the medical card or the long term illness scheme is a matter for the Health Service Executive and is not covered under the ENP scheme.

The Department does not maintain records of the number of applications received for ENPs. However, a detailed breakdown of payments made per county in February 2013 and 2014 is provided in the attached tabular statement.