Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I support Senator Terry's amendment. Amendment No. 37 also seeks to strengthen the rights of the applicant. The amendment suggests the insertion on page 21, subsection (12), line 13, after "appropriate", the words "and shall, where requested by the applicant,". That part of the subsection would then read: "The appeals officer may, where appropriate, and shall, where requested by the applicant, hold an oral hearing for the purpose of an appeal under this section".

Rather than leaving it entirely up to the appeals officer to decide if an oral hearing should take place, this would allow for an oral hearing to take place if requested by the applicant. I suspect that the Minister of State will say that an applicant who asks for an oral hearing is very likely to get it, which is what happens under the social welfare appeals structure. However, the amendment would strengthen the rights of the applicant. Considering the spirit of this legislation and that we are seeking to give people with disabilities a sense of their own power, to give them an initiative, the amendment would be an important element of the legislation.