This Bill is so full of goodies that it is hard to keep track of them all. Section 33 provides for provisions relating to a social welfare tribunal to allow people disqualified from receiving unemployment payments by virtue of their participation in a trade dispute to apply to the social welfare tribunal for an adjudication without first having to appeal the decision to the chief appeals officer. The position up to now where a person was involved in a dispute and applied for unemployment benefit or assistance and was refused because they were involved in that dispute was that if they wanted to pursue their claim, they had to appeal it to the appeals office. If they were still unsatisfied with that decision they could then take it to the social welfare tribunal.
There were two major cases of this kind last year, involving the Irish Pressworkers and the Dunne’s Stores workers. The effect of having to go through the appeals procedure before they went to the tribunal was to delay the decision by some weeks and this was a cause of some concern to those involved. In both cases the tribunal found in favour of the employees. It could just as easily in other circumstances have gone the other way. In this section I have shortened the period by enabling a person, if they are not satisfied with the decision of a deciding office, to take their case directly to the social welfare tribunal. They can of course go to the appeals office if they wish but they have the option here of going directly to the social welfare tribunal to have their case heard.
