Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

There are 20 appeals officers working in the social welfare appeals office and, as the Senator knows, we appointed two extra in January 2009. There are also eight extra experienced retired staff working on a short-term basis to supplement current resources, and they are vetting claims with the aim of deciding a significant number of these on the basis of the documentary evidence and without the need to resort to an oral hearing.

From July until the end of September, these personnel had vetted 4,724 cases, with decisions given in 3,369, with 1,355 cases listed for oral hearing. They have gone through many cases and given a decision, although some require an oral hearing. Such hearings are by far the slowest part of the process as they must be physically organised. I note the Senator's comments and I continue to work with the appeals office on a general level to try to expedite appeals.

We will never get to a stage where oral hearings will take place within six weeks but I have discussed with the office the possibility of a first port of call being a revised decision from the deciding officer. A second port of call would be a summary decision, with a third possibility the oral hearings. We will try to streamline the process and I know the personnel have been doing good work.

This year the throughput of appeals has improved dramatically but the number of appeals has also increased. I am discussing with the office the reasons for the increase in appeals. It is partly because of the increased workload in the Department but we should be considering ways to reduce the need for people to feel they need to appeal decisions and if there are better information systems to be put in place. Fewer appeals would mean we could deal with the genuine and necessary appeals more quickly.