Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

237. To ask the Minister for Social Protection when making an appeal to the social protection appeals office, if a person has the legal right to speak with a medical advisor instead of an appeals officer if requested when there is a medical dimension to the appeal. [23122/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As agreed with my officials the Deputy will be contacted directly with a reply in due course.

Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

238. To ask the Minister for Social Protection when making an appeal to the social protection appeals office, if a person has the legal right to demand that the social protection appeals office does not use the private and confidential information as a case study on their website regardless of name removal. [23123/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Pursuant to Section 308(1) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, the Chief Appeals Officer is obliged to submit an annual report to me not later than six months after the end of each year on the activities of the Social Welfare Appeals Office for the preceding year. Copies of the report are laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the report is published on the Social Welfare Appeals Office website.

In preparing the report, I am advised that the Chief Appeals Officer selects a small number of case studies for inclusion in the report which in her view are indicative of the diverse range of issues which come to the attention of the Appeals Office on appeal in the course of the year.

In addition to fulfilling its primary function as an annual report to me, the case studies selected are intended to be helpful to people preparing for an appeal and any other interested parties. All case studies in the annual reports produced by the Social Welfare Appeals Office are edited so as to anonymise personal information.

No decision has yet been made with regard to the case studies to be included in the annual report for 2016. In this respect if the Deputy has a particular case in mind that he does not wish to have selected for inclusion in the 2016 report I would be happy to bring this to the attention of the Chief Appeals Officer.