Mr. Brian Molloy:

On the training piece, two new appeals officers have joined in the past number of weeks so I probably have greater visibility than I would have had otherwise. I completely agree with the Deputy that it is very important to have a knowledge transfer from the experienced appeals officers. We have a very rigorous process for training of new appeals officers when they come in. We have a series of training modules that are delivered by the experienced appeals officers across the social welfare appeals office over a period. There is then a process after that completes. The phrase used is "sit by Nellie". New officers sit beside an appeals officer as they are making decisions to get experience and, when they start to draft their decisions, senior appeals officers keep an eye on what they produce before they get to a point where they are issuing any decisions. Training is something the social welfare appeals office and I take very seriously. We put many resources into it because some of my senior resources are pulled out to conduct that training, which is very important.

Separately, we also have the academic learning piece. That is a separate piece, in addition to the on-the-job training and knowledge transfer that goes from the senior appeals officers to the more junior people to make sure we maintain that knowledge.