asked the Minister for Social Welfare the average time taken to hear an appeal for the investigation of claims for (1) unemployment claims, (2) disability benefit, (3) deserted wife's claims and (4) old age pension claims.

Statistics are not maintained to enable a calculation to be made of the average time taken to investigate and process an appeal hearing. Every appeal application is determined in the light of its own particular merit. An appellant is required to state the grounds on which the appeal is based and where the contentions are at variance with the information already available a further investigation has to be made. In many cases this may result in prolonged inquiries by a social welfare officer before the case can be submitted to an appeals officer.

Where a further investigation of an appeal application is not deemed to be necessary, it is estimated that the time taken to process an oral hearing from the date of submission to the appeals officer to the date of hearing is six to eight weeks in Dublin and somewhat longer in provincial areas. However, cases which are dealt with summarily by appeals officers are normally determined within four to six weeks from date of submission to date of decision.

The Minister of State has conceded that delays, particularly down the country, may extend to months. I ask him, respectfully, to concede that in many cases delay can extend up to four months. Is not the reason for this that so few appeals officers are employed by the Department? There are 14 in all, consisting of a chief appeals officer, a deputy chief appeals officer, nine permanent and three temporary appeals officers, and this is not sufficient to deal with the various appeals that arise in relation to unemployment, disability, deserted wife's claims and old age pension claims. It is impossible for 14 appeals officers nationally to deal with all the appeals that come before them. In view of the long delays which cause considerable hardship and disquiet, will the Minister of State not concede that it would be in the national interest and the interest of those who would benefit, that more appeals officers should be appointed?

As I have said many times, the number of appeals officers is a factor in the length of time, certainly, but it is not the only factor. There are many other factors, not the least of which is that the number of cases referred to appeals officers each year is in excess of 17,000. As I said in my original reply, cases differ and some cases take much longer to investigate and follow than others. If the Department had more appeals officers there would be some lessening of the time span. Three temporary appeals officers were assigned to the appeals branch in May 1985 and that helped in some way. Every effort will be made to keep the number of appeals officers at their current level.