Major inconsistencies in the value of emergency welfare payments for people experiencing financial hardship have been uncovered in a Government review of the scheme.
Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the Health Service Executive (HSE) may make a payment to help a person meet urgent or exceptional once-off costs.
However, payments levels for items such as prams, funeral expenses, utility bills and furniture vary widely across the country.
For example, the average payment for funeral expenses in 2005 was €702 in the east or greater Dublin area, €1,032 in the midlands, €1,260 in the southeast and €1,611 in the south.
Payments for prams and buggies ranged from €145 in the east, €198 in the west, and €280 in the southeast.
Communion and confirmation payments also varied from a low of €120 in the northeast, to €160 in the midlands and €227 in the midwest.
The biggest discrepancy of all was found in burial expenses, which ranged from €859 in the northeast to €6,500 in the midlands.
While the majority of the lowest payments for items were in the east, this region made the most payments on a per capita basis.
For example, the HSE provided for 103 payments per 1,000 of the population in 2005, well above the national average of 76 payments.
The northeast made the smallest number of payments, with 40 per 1,000 population, almost half the national average.
Expenditure on exceptional needs payments per 1,000 of the population with a medical card also varied widely by region.
In the east around €76,000 was spent on every 1,000 people, 90 per cent above the national average of €40,000.
In the northeast, the figure was just €19,000, less than half the national average.
A Department of Social and Family Affairs working group on the review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme has expressed concern that, as a result, people with the same needs may be receiving significantly different payments.
It concluded that potential differences in cost for the same items in different parts of the country could not explain the major regional differences in expenditure and costs.
The inconsistencies in payment were found to occur despite community welfare officers being issued with guidelines by the department in September 1995, aimed at ensuring a greater degree of consistency of treatment of applications for exceptional payments.
Overall, the annual cost of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme has risen from €41 million in 2001 to €56.5 million in 2005, an increase of almost 38 per cent.
There has been a steady increase across all categories of payment, although the steepest rises have been for financial hardship (up 53 per cent), housing-related costs (up 54 per cent) and funeral expenses (up 60 per cent).
Exceptional needs payments are directed at a people who are normally in receipt of social welfare or who are in low-paid employment.
Urgent needs payments are directed at those who are not normally entitled to supplementary welfare, such as a person who has immediate needs arising from a fire or flood.