asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if the procedure regulating and restricting interviews by members of the Oireachtas with the deciding officers in relation to old age pensions will apply to Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Interviews with Deciding Officers.
It has not been the practice of Ministers or Parliamentary Secretaries to make verbal representations to the deciding officers for old age pension appeals and the question, therefore, does not arise.
The Parliamentary Secretary has stated that it is not the practice to make verbal representations to the deciding officers. I would like to know if it is the practice of Ministers or Parliamentary Secretaries to make other representations than verbal, that is, written representations, and in making those representations to seek to have the cases taken out of their chronological order?
Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, like other members of the Dáil, may make written representations, but there have been no requests from them to have cases taken out of their chronological order.