Vol. 577 No. 4
305 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the funding that has been made available from his Department to help persons affected by the landslide in north Mayo; and the help available for these persons. [31462/03]
The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered by the health boards on behalf of my Department. Under the terms of the scheme a health board may make a single payment, known as an exceptional needs payment, to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, that a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her weekly income.
The Western Health Board has advised that in the days immediately following the landslide the local community welfare service made efforts to visit every household in the area to ensure that people were aware that assistance was available under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Information leaflets were distributed along with a mobile telephone number to be contacted. Health board staff also attended four public meetings to provide information to the community. The community welfare officer called to each family that was affected by the landslide. To date approximately 30 exceptional need payments have issued in response to assistance sought by people affected by the landslide.
