Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The provision will amend section 307 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005. It will provide that, in all cases where an appeal is made against a social welfare decision made by an officer of the Criminal Assets Bureau, the appeal will have to be submitted to the Circuit Court.

The chief appeals officer has discretionary powers under section 307 to certify that the ordinary appeals procedure is inadequate to secure the effective processing of a particular appeal and to the direct the person to submit the appeal to the Circuit Court. The Circuit Court may, on hearing the appeal, either affirm or substitute the decision of the deciding officer in accordance with the Social Welfare Acts. A key difficulty facing the chief appeals officer in Criminal Assets Bureau cases is that, for very understandable reasons, insufficient information is provided by the bureau to the officer as to why a person's claim is being investigated by the bureau and on the nature of the alleged criminal conduct that the person is facing. This difficulty is often compounded by the fact that, while information relating to the investigation and the nature of the alleged criminal conduct is recorded on file, it is not evident that the person being investigated is advised as to why his or her claim is being investigated by the bureau and-or the relevant provision of the Criminal Assets Bureau Act that is being relied upon. If the chief appeals officer were to base his or her consideration on the information, it would be incumbent on him or her to advise the appellant accordingly; however, the chief appeals officer does not enjoy the anonymity afforded to Criminal Assets Bureau officers and, in these circumstances, she or he would be the first person advising the appellant of these facts. That is clearly undesirable and the amendment will address these difficulties directly.

In practical terms, the appeals against social welfare decisions made by a bureau officer of the Criminal Assets Bureau will continue to be made to the Social Welfare Appeals Office in the first instance and the statutory timeframe for making the appeal will apply but the chief appeals officer will be required to cause a direction to be issued to the appellant directing the person to submit the appeal not later than 21 days from the receipt of the direction of the Circuit Court. In line with section 307, the Circuit Court may, on hearing the appeal, affirm the decision or substitute the decision of the deciding officer in accordance with the Social Welfare Consolidation Act and on the same evidence as would otherwise be available to the appeals officer. The Criminal Assets Bureau and the Department of Justice and Equality are both supportive of this amendment.