Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I wish to raise the Foreshore (Amendment) Bill which is before the House tomorrow. The legislation was not published until yesterday evening. That does not give appropriate time to scrutinise the Bill. Rushing legislation without affording appropriate time for it to come before the House does not do justice to it or to the House. A similar issue arose last week. Perhaps the Leader could investigate the matter and ensure that legislation of this nature is not rushed into this House again. As an Opposition spokesperson on agriculture, marine and food, I only found out this morning that a briefing had been organised by the Department yesterday evening, despite the fact that most rural Members of the House - and, indeed, of the Dáil - tend to be in their areas or constituencies, rather than in Dublin, on Monday evenings. I ask the Leader to make sure this does not happen again.

The social welfare budget represents over 40% of State funding this year. Currently, there are more than 33,000 appeals lodged with the social welfare appeals office, and many of these are taking between six and 12 months to determine. This is totally unacceptable. I am calling for an emergency debate on the operations of the social welfare appeals office. It is unacceptable that any member of the public would have to wait for up to a year for a genuine appeal to be heard. I have heard of a number of cases over the last 12 months in which applicants were refused supplementary welfare allowance while their cases were on appeal, yet when the appeal decision was made they were awarded social welfare entitlements.

There are problems, as I understand it, due to the moving of community welfare officers from the HSE to the Department of Social Protection. Less leniency is being shown by CWOs at a local level than when they were under the HSE. This is a serious issue that is affecting more than 33,000 of our citizens. I ask the Leader to convene a debate on the social welfare appeals office as quickly as possible.