Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 57: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the steps she will take, legislative or otherwise, to ensure that the Social Welfare Appeals Office publish it's decisions in a suitably anonymised format. [34939/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that publishing Appeals Officer's decisions would require a significant amount of effort as they would need to be suitably edited to ensure the full picture is given and also as details would need to be changed to ensure personal data is not disclosed. Given the large number of appeals decisions given each year, 25,390 in 2011 for example, such a process would impose a significant overhead on the office. However the Office publishes a number of case studies, suitably edited, on its website and also in the Chief Appeals Officer's annual report to the Minister and it is intended to increase the number of these case studies available on the website in 2012.