Seán Canney
Ceist:
229. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of reviews or appeals sent to his Department that are successful; if the percentage of these reviews or appeals which are being decided in the client’s favour has decreased in recent years; his views on whether clients seeking a review decision are having their cases reviewed in a fair and compassionate manner; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57720/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra
Seán Canney
Ceist:
230. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of appeals received by his Department in each of the years 2016 to 2020 not including appeals to the agriculture appeals office; the percentage of those which were successful in each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57721/21]
Amharc ar fhreagra
I propose to take Questions Nos. 229 and 230 together.
It is not possible to provide the information requested by the Deputy in the required time. The information is currently being compiled and I will forward it to the Deputy as soon as it is available.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51
It was not possible to provide the information requested by the Deputy in the required time, and he would arrange for a reply to be forwarded directly to you as soon as it was available.
My Department operates a wide range of schemes to farmers and there are various types of appeals lodged. The information requested is not centrally recorded and in general the number of Reviews and appeals lodged along with the percentage of successful cases are retained. In relation to the Sheep Welfare Scheme, only the number of successful appeals is retained and not the number of appeals lodged. While for the Beef Schemes and ANC schemes, the total number of Reviews/Appeals are retained and not the percentage number of successful cases.
All requests for appeals or review of decisions are dealt with in a fair and impartial manner and all evidence submitted with a request for a review is taken into consideration prior a decision being reached.
I now wish to advise you that after reviewing all the appropriate files, the information that is available in my Department is set out below:
The table below shows the number of cases from 2016 to 2020, for the majority of appeals lodged under various Schemes, where the total number of appeals were recorded and where a record of all successful cases was also retained.
Year
|
Number of Reviews/Appeals
|
% Successful
|
2016
|
1,791
|
42
|
2017
|
2,231
|
36
|
2018
|
2,146
|
37
|
2019
|
2,017
|
36
|
2020
|
1,757
|
46
|
These figures show a relatively stable number of successful appeals over the past 5 years, averaging at around 40%.
In addition to the above, there are cases in 2017 to 2020 where the system recorded the successful cases only for appeals lodged under the Sheep Welfare Scheme, and not the total number of appeals lodged. Details of these cases are set out below:
Year
|
Number of successful Reviews/Appeals
|
2017
|
197
|
2018
|
252
|
2019
|
133
|
2020
|
137
|
In 2019 and 2020 there were also appeals in relation to the Beef Schemes and ANC, where only the total number of Reviews/Appeals were retained and not the percentage number of successful cases.
Year
|
Number of Reviews/Appeals
|
2019
|
1,699
|
2020
|
1,405
|
Question No. 230 answered with Question No. 229.