Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to the Minister. FLAC and the NCLC make the point that the denial of the right to appeal is in breach of rights to fair procedure and that section 343(v) of the Principal Act provides that if an appeals officer decides that the Department has under-estimated the sum due under the statement of recoverable benefits, that the compensator is liable for the difference. It is suggested they are unlikely to want to bear this loss so will they go after the social welfare applicant for the balance? That does not seem practical as all this happens after the financial settlement or order has been paid out. I appreciate that the Minister is working her way through this because of the complexity of it and keeping it under review but those questions are germane to the current debate. She may have an opinion on the statements made.