Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions to seek clarification.In the instance where a case is put forward, when a decision is made, and someone wishes to appeal that case, can I clarify that this is a third stage or is it a replacement for the second stage of an appeal? Let us take as an example a case where someone disagrees with a decision by a case officer or someone else regarding a payment where this decision has been taken on the basis of some of the circumstances we discussed earlier. One ambiguous aspect of this legislation which would I would like to have defined is the meaning of the term "good cause". If a deciding officer determines that a person did not have good cause for non-attendance at a meeting or whatever it might be, does the Minister envisage that the process will move straight to this stage or am I correct in saying that this is a third stage? This is a technical question.