The policy of the social welfare appeals office is to hold hearings at venues as convenient as possible to the appellant. In the Dublin area appeals are heard at the appeals office headquarters. The rest of the country is divided into seven circuits, one of which covers County Mayo. Each circuit would include venues located along the route.
The number of cases which can be taken at an oral hearing session will depend on the complexity of the cases involved. Some appeal hearings can be disposed of within ten to 15 minutes whereas other hearings relating to more complex issues could take up to a half-day.
There is no set regularity for holding oral hearings in County Mayo or in any other part of the country. In any given week there will be approximately five appeals officers on circuit outside of Dublin. The number of occasions when an appeals officer visited the County Mayo circuit during the period from 1 January 2002 to 31 October 2002 was 18, in the course of which 391 cases where dealt with. The corresponding figures for 2001 was 16 visits, involving 289 cases. Details are not available for the length of time appellants from different parts of the country are awaiting oral hearings.
