Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a high rate of successful appeals, at 55%. I have had suspicions as have others that there is a general policy within the Department to turn everything down initially which will turn a fair number of people away. Fewer people will come back, which will mean less expense for the Exchequer. Does the 55% success rate in terms of appeals point to incompetence on the part of front-line workers, a misunderstanding between themselves and the people before them or is it, perhaps, that there is an unwritten policy to turn more applications down initially so that fewer people come back?