Mr. John McKeon:

The legislation and the regulations provide that the appeals officer has the discretion to determine the form of hearing. While a person can request it, I do not think it would be correct that just because a person requested it, they would always in 100% of cases get one. The practice is to facilitate one on request when at all possible. We need to be careful about having absolute rules in this space and that an oral hearing is always held irrespective and irregardless because in some cases it is not inconceivable that there would be a very straightforward case that does not require an oral hearing where a person, for example, clearly does not have the contributions required to access a scheme. They are entitled to appeal but if an appeals officer can very clearly see they do not have the contributions and the person insists on an oral hearing, that is a waste of half a day. The discretion has to be given to the appeals officer. Ms Gordon will confirm this but I am not aware of any case where somebody who requested an in-person hearing was not granted one. We need to be careful not to put in absolute rules. That is all.