Mr. Mark O'Mahony:

We completely accept the point made by the Senator about the waiting time being unacceptable. The Department accepts that and we have all addressed that. The Senator is right that the hearing time needs to be brought down. Today is part of that process.

With regard to dealing with the level of appeals, not all appeals will require a hearing and not all will even be set a hearing date. There is, perhaps, not a direct correlation between the number of appeals we receive every year and the number of hearings we are required to carry out. In 2018 we doubled the number of cases we had closed. In 2017 it was 700, while last year it was some 1,440. We are getting there, but the Senator is absolutely right and that is why we are here today. The waiting list needs to be brought down. The chairman role is one part of it but we also have sanction from the Minister for a doubling of our staff numbers with the announcement that there will be three temporary commissioners. We are going from three commissioners to six and we are confident there will be a significant improvement in-----