Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the amendment. That the role be as independent as possible has been called for by the joint committee which is cross-party. It is set out in the committee's recommendations of which there are 27. It stated: "The independence of the Chief Deciding Officer will be critical to this and should be shored up as much as possible." Similar points were made in a slightly different way by various entities. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission made points about the need for proper training for the chief deciding officer as well as for the appeals officers and that they would have training in human rights and so on in relation to hearing appeals. Therefore I support the amendment.

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