The Gazette 1989

A pril 1989

GAZETTE

Social Welfare Appeals System

YOUR WILL can help Irish Wheelchair Association For donations and further particulars contact: Miriam McNally Irish Wheelchair Association Áras Chuchulain, Blackheath Drive, Clontarf. Dublin 3. Tel: 338241

Law Society's Submission to Minister for Social Welfare on the Social Welfare Appeals System

The Law Society has noted that in the Programme for National Recovery in Section 4 under the heading of Greater Social Equality that the Government are examining what changes if any are required in the Social Welfare Appeals System with particular regard to ensuring that the system is perceived to be fair. Having consulted extensively with its members the Law Society considers that the system could be considerably improved and is un- sa t i s f ac t o ry in the f o l l ow i ng respects. 1. An Appeals Officer is a Civil Servant in the Department of Social Welfare and is employed by the Minister and it is unsatis- factory that he should have to decide on an issue in an appeal between the Minister who is his employer and an insured person who is the appellant and a member of the public. The principal of "justice not only being done but being seen to be done" is of direct relevance and very important here to insured persons.

2. The insured person should be advised of their right to appeal against the decision of a deciding officer. 3. An insured person should also be advised of their right to appeal to the High Court on a point of law against the decision of an appeals officer. 4. There should be an automatic right to an oral hearing of an appeal before an appeals officer. 5. There should be an automatic right for claimants as insured persons to be represented and legally represented if they so require at all appeals. 6. The Law Society recommends that the system of the hearing of Social Welfare appeals by appeals officers should be replaced by a system on similar lines to the Employment Appeals Tribunal with a legally qualified chairman as being the most effective way in which the total integrity and independence of the system could be guaranteed in the interests of justice, fair play and proper due process. •

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LAW CLERKS '

COURSE • 1988/89 -

The Presentation of Certificates Ceremony in respect of the above course will take place on Thursday, 20 July, 1989 at 4.15 p.m.

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practical guide to the law and legal procedures connected with land registration. As such it will be welcomed by the legal profession. ISBN 0-947686-34-7 £55.00 THE ROUND HALL PRESS Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin Tel. 892922 Fax 893072

up-to-date account of land registry practice in Ireland, the first such text since McAllister's Registration of Title in Ireland (1973). It consists of twenty-nine chapters

Each year the Land Registry deals with approx. 200,000 transactions, 80,000 of which are applications for registration. This book is a

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