Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I agree fully with the Deputy that we must process more appeals faster. We are doing that, and there has been a dramatic improvement this year. However, what has also happened is that the number of appeals has increased at the same time. While 43% of appeals had a successful outcome for the appellant, of the 8,697 favourable decisions in appeals cases, almost two thirds of those decisions - 5,212 - were revised decisions made by statutorily appointed deciding officers of my Department who reviewed the claim following the initial disallowance. In many cases those revised decisions arose as a result of new facts or fresh evidence produced by the claimant after the original decision on his or her claim. In such cases an appeals officer decision was not necessary. In addition, it should be noted that of the 12,692 appeals decided by appeals officers, a total of 9,207, or 73%, upheld the original decision of the deciding officer.

One of the major challenges faced by us is the information provided on appeal. I am sure the Deputy has experience of somebody who comes in and appeals it, and he then encourages them to provide data which, if it had been available earlier, would have avoided the need for an appeal. The figures bear out clearly what we have to examine, namely, whether there are processes we could put in place that would encourage people to give the full information at the outset because if that happened it would cut out many delays and save a great deal of work in my Department.

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