John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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486. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 1139 and 1181 of 13 January 2021, if he is satisfied with the efficiency of the appeals office, given that one appeal has taken almost a year and the other almost four months and the delay is causing the families concerned considerable stress and hardship; the number of staff employed in the office; the qualifications of each; and if the appeals office is short staffed, his plans to reduce the unacceptable time-frame for such appeals. [3083/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to inform the Deputy that the Agriculture Appeals Office operates independently of my Department.

The Office was established in 2002 in accordance with the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 and the Agriculture Appeals Regulations 2002. There are distinct and specific statutory functions assigned to the officials delivering the appeals service which require the Appeals Officers and the Director to be independent in the performance of their functions when making determinations on appeals.

Appeals Officers are appointed in accordance with the provisions of Section 2 of the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001 and have a wide range of experience within various roles. In 2018, the Agriculture Appeals Office was assigned responsibility for implementing a new statutory appeals service for appeals against Department decisions on forestry licences. The Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC) also operates independently of my Department.

I have been informed that the Office is currently experiencing delays in dealing with agriculture and forestry appeals due to an increase in the volume of appeals received.

The number of agriculture appeals submitted to the Office in 2020 was 34% higher than the number submitted in 2019. In addition, the holding of oral hearings for agriculture appeals, which appellants may request under the Agriculture Appeals legislation, was suspended last March due to restrictions put in place to deal with COVID-19. Hearings were resumed in the latter part of 2020 but had to be suspended again due to further restrictions being put in place. I understand that the Office is now holding oral hearings remotely for agriculture appeals and appellants have been contacted by the Office in this regard.

Since the Forestry Appeals Committee was established, the number of appeals has increased significantly year on year. In 2020, there were 874 appeals submitted to the FAC compared to 489 in 2019.

Additional resources were provided to the Office in the 3rd quarter of 2020 to cater for the backlog of agriculture and forestry appeals. The current staff allocation is one Director, one Deputy Director, 14 Appeals Officers and 13 administrative support staff. The staff undertake duties in relation to both Agriculture Appeals and Forestry Appeals. All Appeals Officers are members of the FAC. Up to November 2020, there was one Forestry Appeals Committee hearing forestry appeals. There are now four divisions of the Forestry Appeals Committee hearing such appeals to provide a more efficient service and these are made up of external members and Appeals Officers.

With regard to the appeal to which you refer that was submitted to the Office four months ago, I understand that this has now been assigned to an Appeals Officer for determination and the appellant will be contacted in due course.

You also refer to an appeal that was submitted almost a year ago. I have been advised by the Office that a decision was issued by the Appeals Officer dealing with this appeal and, following the issuing of this decision, there was a request for a review of the Appeals Officer's decision received from the appellant in February 2020.

Reviews of decisions of Appeals Officers can only be undertaken by the Director of the Appeals Office in accordance with the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001. I am advised that there has been a significant increase in the number of reviews sought in the past few years which has led to delays in completing the reviews.

I am assured that the Office is making every effort to deal with the backlog of both forestry and agriculture appeals through the assignment of additional resources in 2020 and the holding of remote hearings.