Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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283. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of times his Department has appealed a decision that was made by the Agriculture Appeals Office from January 2011 to October 2021, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56509/21]

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 Agriculture Appeals Office was established in 2002 pursuant to the Agriculture Appeals Act 2001. The decision of an Appeals Officer is final and conclusive, subject to the circumstances provided in Section 10 of the Act and my Department rarely seeks to have a decision changed. Section 10 of the Act 2001 sets out the reasons that a decision may be changed. These are:

(1) An appeals officer may, at any time revise any decision of an appeals officer, if it appears to him or her that the decision was erroneous in the light of new evidence or of new facts brought to his or her notice since the date on which it was given, or if it appears to him or her that there has been any relevant change of circumstances since the decision was given.

(2) The Director may, at any time, revise any decision of an appeals officer, if it appears to him or her that the decision was erroneous by reason of some mistake having been made in relation to the law or the facts.

The number of reviews of decisions of Appeals Officers requested by my Department for the years 2015 – 2021 is as follows:

Unfortunately, records concerning the number of reviews requested by my Department for the years 2011 to 2014 are not readily available and are not kept electronically, I am assured however that the numbers of review requests by my Department were very low during those years.