Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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638. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the amount expended in each year since and including 2008 on exceptional needs payments under the supplementary welfare scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5739/19]

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. An urgent needs payment (UNP) may be 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 where an alternative is not available at that time.

In total €38.8 million has been provided for ENPs and UNPs in 2019. The following tabular statement shows the expenditure on ENPs and UNPs each year since 2008.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Expenditure on ENPs and UNPs, 2008-2018

* Provisional outturn