Storm Éowyn emergency payments issued in Roscommon third highest in the country

The number of Storm Éowyn humanitarian payments paid to households in County Roscommon to date is the third highest in the country, according to latest figures.

More than €816,000 in humanitarian assistance was paid to over 3,000 homes in the county affected by the January storm, one of most severe weather events to hit Ireland.

However, the total number of claims paid out to date in the county is still less than half the total number of claims registered, a number which stood at 7,299 in early April.

County Galway topped the list with the highest number of issued payments totalling €2.62m followed by Mayo on €1.37m. 

10,512 claims out of almost 26,000 claims registered in Galway have been paid to date while more than 6,000 payments out of 14,682 registered claims were issued in Mayo.

In Leitrim, €566,357 humanitarian payments have been issued to 1,952 households in County Leitrim. A total of 3,825 claims have been registered in the county.

The data reveals that more than €7.5m has been paid out to date to 31,228 homes around the country since Storm Éowyn. A total of 78,212 claims have been registered to date.

The information was supplied earlier this month by the Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, in a written response to a parliamentary response to Roscommon-Galway Sinn Fein TD, Claire Kerrane 

It provides details up to April 3rd on the number of applications registered, the number of payments made, and expenditure by county since Storm Éowyn.

Minister Calleary assured Deputy Kerrane that humanitarian assistance scheme claims were being processed as quickly as possible, with priority given to the most urgent cases. 

He said additional staff had been assigned to deal with applications to ensure there were no undue delays.

The Minister said that the focus for the Department at the moment remained on ensuring that payments would issue as soon as possible to those eligible for the payment.