Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

The only one I am aware of is that which arose in the newspaper last week and which was the subject of a Dáil question by one of the Deputy's colleagues. When I sought to establish the facts, they were very different from what had appeared. The individual who made the application was in her early 80s, which in itself was unusual because generally the applicants are younger relatives or members of the family of the older person.

I understand it related to the form not having been completed accurately, and a legal letter was sent. The person who received it felt somewhat intimidated by the letter and thought the letter was indicating she would not get her money, which was not the case. The letter — in legalese, which is intimidating for most of us — simply asked the applicant to clarify the documentation.

Many of the applications are made by lawyers on behalf of individuals and I know of a large number of people where the solicitors have made an application on an applicant's behalf. I understand that with the high number that came in just before Christmas, many were applications made by legal representatives of deceased persons. The same procedure applies for everybody under the Act in terms of the application process and scrutiny.

On the appeals officers, we have indicated we need whatever number of appeals officers required to deal with the level of activity. It has not been brought to my attention that there is a shortage, as I indicated. More are being appointed on a temporary basis, and there are four administrative backup staff to help. I have not heard that there is a shortage of appeals officers but if additional manpower is required to clear the appeals in a short space of time, it will not be a problem.

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