Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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32. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason for the directive given from her Department that the circumstances surrounding the need for an exceptional needs payment must be unforeseen as well as exceptional; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1847/18]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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38. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the level and amount of exceptional needs payments that have been made in County Tipperary over the past four years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1988/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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217. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications for exceptional needs payments in each of the past three years and to date in 2018; the number approved, refused or pending respectively; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2373/18]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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229. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the extent to which funding for exceptional needs payments became exhausted in her Department before the end of 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2385/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 32, 38, 217 and 229 together.

Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income.

An urgent needs payment (UNP) is a once-off payment made to persons who may not normally qualify for SWA but who have an urgent need which they cannot meet from their own resources or an alternative is not available at that time. The Government has provided €36.42 million for these payments in 2018.

Nearly all of the expenditure incurred by the Department, including that for exceptional payment, is demand-led. Demand for the Department's schemes is driven by demographic trends and economic factors such as developments in the labour market. Where additional moneys are required to meet demand on overall expenditure for the year, the Department may seek a Supplementary Estimate. The Government had provided €31.5 million for ENPs and UNPs in the Revised Estimates for 2017 with an additional €5.7 million made available through the recent Supplementary Estimate giving a total allocation of €37.2 million in 2017.

The legislation does not confer a statutory right or entitlement to ENPs. The guidelines issued to staff administering the ENP scheme assist them in the decision making process. The principle consideration in making a payment under the ENP scheme is to address a particular once-off and exceptional need which is not of an expected or recurring nature and is therefore by its nature generally unforeseen. The guidelines do not affect the discretion available to officers in issuing an ENP to assist an individual or household in any particular hardship situation which may arise, so that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

Statistics are maintained relating to payments under the ENP scheme, however they are not maintained on the number of applications or the outcome of those applications. Details of the number of payments and expenditure made under the ENP scheme in County Tipperary for 2014 to 2017 are set out in Table 1 and the total number of payments for the years 2015 to 2018 are set out in Table 2 of the following tabular statement. For reporting purposes this data also includes the numbers of urgent needs payments (UNP).

Any persons who consider that they have an entitlement to an ENP should contact my Department.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputies.

Tabular Statement

Table 1 - Number of Exceptional Needs Payments and Exchequer Outturn made in Co. Tipperary by year

*2017 Outturn is provisional

Table 2 - Number of Payments under the Exceptional Needs Scheme, 2015-2018 (12 January 2018)