Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I raised the issue of the role of chief deciding officer on Committee Stage. There is still no clarity as to the status of that role. Will it be a Civil Service role? Will it be subject to the Public Appointments Service process? What grade will the appointed person be? Is there an equivalent grade within the Civil Service in respect of that role? What role will public representatives have? I draw similarities between when I make representations to the HSE or the Department of Social Protection. There are any number of officers with whom I deal with depending on the issue and there is a hierarchy there. First, we need to be able to make representations, on behalf of our constituents, to the deciding officer or a designated person. Second, what is the infrastructure around that person? What we do not want is a situation in which we are seeking to advocate on behalf of people in a reasonable fashion but we are disbarred from doing so.

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