Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I do not have a firm view on that at this stage. It is important that, through the primary legislation, we have a mechanism in place. We would need to see how the office is being used.

What is fresh in my mind is the experience regarding forestry appeals. A vast number of appeals that could be submitted simply by firing off an email, which went into an appeals committee that got clogged up and bogged down. Somebody could appeal through the click of a finger and there is not necessarily a quality assessment of an appeal. It was found in that case that when a small, but appropriate, fee was involved there was more proportionality in how people engaged with the system and submitted appeals. It brought about a more proportionate appeals system in forestry.

In the aftermath of the legislation passed by the Oireachtas that enabled a small fee to be charged, the level of appeals one would expect now appears to be more proportionate. That is the rationale for having a fee in place. Should a Minister decide that a fee of €50 or whatever is appropriate, that can be implemented. Otherwise, there is nothing to stop a person sitting down and sending off 100 appeals, however frivolous, and using up time which is valuable and may not be very effectively used in dealing with such appeals. A fee of €10, €20 or €30 would mean someone would be much less likely to fire in 50 or 100 frivolous appeals. That was found to be the case in terms of the changes made regarding the forestry system. It is important that we have that capacity in this Bill.