Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I welcome some of the reply regarding some of the improvements already in train. I very much welcome that the Minister, Deputy Calleary, has met the appeals team and additional staff are now being employed, bringing the total number of staff to 64. This is certainly welcome.

With regard to the new appeals regulations, there are positive changes in terms of the applicant having a longer period to make an appeal, and that it could potentially be up to 180 days, at the discretion of the appeals officer. These are welcome changes but they do not necessarily set a specific timeline for decision on an appeal. I know the Minister of State said there are statutory timelines for various stages of the appeal but, ultimately, people want to hear the final decision on whether an appeal is successful. The additional staff are welcome and I hope we will move to a point whereby appeals are decided within a reasonable timeframe. The average of 20 weeks is too high. Unfortunately it is an average, which necessarily means some take much longer than this. This means people are waiting for long periods for a decision to be made.

I welcome the reply. Changes are afoot, which is welcome but this is an issue that must be continually kept under review so we can reduce the appeal period so that people can get decisions within a reasonable and proportionate timeframe.

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