Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 36:

In page 20, subsection (3), line 3, to delete "weeks" and substitute "months".

This amendment refers to the timeframe in which an applicant or a person may appeal to the appeals officer. The legislation provides that the appeal should be made within six weeks of the date on which the finding or recommendation to which it relates was communicated to the person. My amendment suggests that six months instead of six weeks should be allowed.

If we do not make that change we could be denying access to appeal for a person who may be unable to make an appeal within the shorter timeframe. A person might be very ill, and incapable of making an appeal within that timeframe. That person would then in effect be denied the right to appeal a decision with which the person felt unhappy. A period of six weeks is very short for some people, though it might be adequate for the majority. Anyone unhappy with a recommendation would probably want to appeal it straightaway but, as we said earlier, we are dealing with sensitive situations, with people who may, at a particular time in their lives, have limited capacity. Someone suffering from severe depression, for example, might not be able to make an appeal within the six-week timeframe. If that were the case, we would be doing such people an injustice. I ask the Minister of State to consider accepting the amendment and extending the timeframe to six months.