Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

There will always be carry over of appeals into the following year, which the Deputy totally ignores in her mathematics. It takes time to deal with appeals because this is a quasi-judicial situation. I outlined the time taken in the answer to the priority question; it is needed because when an appeal is made, it is examined, if there is new information it is sent back for an opportunity for the deciding officer to change the decision, then it comes back and an appeals officer looks at it. In some cases, the appeal then goes to an oral hearing. There will never be a situation where zero time is taken for an appeal, there will always be appeals under way, that has always been the way. The Deputy's mathematics ignore that.

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