Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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653. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons who have received an exceptional needs payment from 1 January 2018 to date in 2018 by county in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50270/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the 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. Almost 86,000 payments have issued under the scheme in 2018 up to end October. A breakdown of payments by county is available in the following tabular statement.

The ENP scheme is demand-led and payments are made 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.

Any persons who consider that they have an entitlement to an exceptional needs payment should contact the Department’s Community Welfare Service.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Number of Payments under the Exceptional Needs and Urgent Needs Schemes, 1 Jan - 30 Oct 2018: