Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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525. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the amount provided under the humanitarian assistance scheme; and the amount that has been administered to date in 2017 under the humanitarian assistance scheme. [53106/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Housing, Planning 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, my Department has an important role to play in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of emergency events such as flooding.

The purpose of the humanitarian assistance scheme is to prevent hardship by providing income-tested financial support to people whose homes are damaged from flooding and severe weather events and who are not in a position to meet costs for essential needs, household items and in some instances structural repair. In 2017, the scheme was recently activated to provide support to householders affected following the flooding in County Donegal in August and in County Laois in November where payments are continuing to be made. There is a time-lag between the flooding event and claims for financial support as the full extent of the damage to homes only becomes known when the flood water abates and the properties dry out.

The scheme is demand-led and by its nature is difficult to predict the expected outturn. Some €500,000 was provided for the scheme in the Revised Estimates for 2017 with an additional €1.34 million made available through the recent Supplementary Estimate process giving a total allocation for 2017 of €1.84 million. Expenditure data shows that to the end of November some €732,000 had been spent under the scheme, which also includes an amount paid for household relocation expenses arising from 2009 flooding events.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.