Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's assumptions about the practices are correct. As the Deputy is aware, people are better off doing a review than going to appeals, but with the improvements in technology, everybody has seen a very significant improvement in processing. Having the right to make a fresh application for a change of circumstances is a valuable right and is the right thing to do in many cases. With 2 million social welfare applications a year and the findings by the High Court of the gap in the law, this is simply an attempt to close the gap to ensure all the administrative procedures the Deputy has described can continue as well as providing for the fresh application.