Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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694. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of exceptional needs payments made in each of the years 2011 to 2018 and to date in 2019, in tabular form; the expenditure on same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52943/19]

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. 

The following tabular statement shows the number of payments and expenditure on ENPs and UNPs each year since 2011.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Number of payments / expenditure on ENPs and UNPs, 2011 – Nov 2019