Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I do not have data on the rate of success in the appeals, I can say the volume of activity is much improved and 334 appellants have been assessed since the appeals process recommenced in December. I do not have the split - I am sure it can be provided through parliamentary questions and so on - but it represents a lot of progress. I think well over 1,000 people were on the waiting list at one time. To be fair to the members of the appeals board that I appointed, they are doing a lot of hard work and are making serious inroads into the backlog. I thank them for that. We can all recognise that the key issue here is that the gateway to the existing scheme is the primary medical certificate. The policy on the alternative gateway to a grant-based support is not one that my Department is leading on, understandably. We are the Department of Finance. We are administering the existing scheme. It cost just over €70 million in 2022. We will continue to administer it. I have made a very specific change in the scheme to accommodate a small number of cases which I felt were very genuine and needed to be addressed. We have the appeals system back up and running. I cannot give details on the emerging proposal. It would not be fair to do so until we have a final agreed proposal on what will replace the existing scheme. The work is ongoing and we are making progress on dealing with the appeals.

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