Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think I have the figure here about how long the oldest case is there, but I will get it for the Deputy. It is complicated enough and perhaps not that many people are familiar with this process, but it kicks in whenever a person provides new information. When an appeal is decided, if a person has new information, the application goes back in again and it is looked at with a fresh set of eyes. It is not influenced by any other decision that has been made; the whole file is looked at by a different person. That is important too so that there is fairness. A lot of the time it is because there is new information provided and that is what kicks the system into place.

As we know, in the vast majority of cases all the information is not provided. That is the case in particular with medication information. I have seen it myself. If certain boxes are not ticked by the doctor, another letter is required to explain that a person is deserving. In fairness, appeals officer do a difficult job and they do their best.

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