Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 34:

In page 39, line 42, to delete "District Court" and substitute "Minister".

My amendment is on animal health and welfare notices and appeals and refers to section 42(2)(b) where an appeal notice can be lodged with the District Court. The other Senators and I suggest that it can be made to the Minister instead of availing of the legal process. We discussed the matter the other day. We all know that the courts are jammed because so many people are taking cases, for example, against insurance companies. If one talks to anyone in the legal profession they will say the same. I do not have a legal background but we all know that the courts are clogged up.

Making a provision where people must lodge their appeal with the District Court means they must deal with a logjam and a financial burden. We propose, under sections 43(1) and 42(2)(b), that appeals should be lodged with the office of the Minister. The other day we suggested that an independent appeals office could be established to deal with them but perhaps that would impose an unnecessary cost on the State. For example, the social welfare appeals office is in free fall which is shameful because there are 35,000 appeals in its system. I do not suggest that the same will happen in this instance. If the criteria for a genuine case was laid down then a person could interpret that information and present his or her written appeal to the Minister's office where he or she could then make a determination. We all hope that the Minister's office would not be left with thousands of appeals. Obviously one or two of the Minister's officials would have to lead the section. My suggestion is sensible and would also give the Minister an independent oversight when dealing with the legislation.

I am not sure how the Minister views my suggestion. An appeals unit in the Department is important and I am reluctant to support a District Court process because of its cost and heavy workload.