Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I can absolutely assure the Deputy that oral appeals will continue. The regulations are now there for people to request them. However, things have changed and the functionality available on MyWelfare.ie gives much more information earlier in the process, which leads to a situation where the oral hearing is not as important as it may once have been. I assure the Deputy oral appeals will continue to happen and I will continue to monitor the figures. My main focus at the moment is working with the appeals office to get through any backlogs. We have appointed 20 new appeals officers this year and are getting through the backlog.

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