There is a precedent for this in another agency under the control of the Minister's Department, the Employment Appeals Tribunal, where a similar system of representation has operated successfully for a number of years. Individual claimants appearing before the tribunal are entitled to represent themselves or be represented by union or legal officials. Under the rules of the tribunal, any claimant who hires a lawyer must do so at his or her own expense. There is no evidence to suggest the entitlement for people to hire lawyers to act for them has resulted in the tribunal costing more money or operating less efficiently. If the Minister continues to insist that people are not entitled to be legally represented in their dealings with the PIAB where they are happy to pay for representation themselves, concerns may be raised that the true motivation for excluding representation is to institutionalise the inequality of the parties.