New legislation passed by the Dail yesterday gives the Minister for Agriculture power to intervene "by regulation, not guideline" if there are delays in the appeals process.

"It is a major step in the right direction and I hope the Opposition will see that what they proposed has been built on in a reasonable way," the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, told the House, during a debate on the final stages of the Agriculture Appeals Bill, 2001.

He was replying to Opposition TDs who were concerned that the legislation should ensure appeals were dealt with by the Department of Agriculture without undue delay.

A simple amendment which indicated that all appeals had to be carried out within a fixed period could leave the appellant at a disadvantage, he said. "We have seen in the past, particularly in the case of An Bord Pleanala, how guidelines do not ensure speedy decisions."

It was, therefore, proposed the Minister could make regulations "as is necessary" to include time limits. The effect was to "fine tune" the legislation in such a way as to "direct regulation in favour of the appellant". This would be better than a "blanket requirement" where everything must be done within eight weeks, even if that did not suit the appellant.

The Fine Gael spokesman on agriculture, Mr Alan Dukes, asked whether the regulations the Minister proposed stipulated the period where appeals would be admissible. In some cases, where appeals were allegedly dealt with in an unsatisfactory way, the people concerned would wish to have their cases revisited. Would there be any provision in the regulations for retrospection?

It was important to have time limits, said Mr Ulick Burke (Fine Gael, Galway East). "At present it takes almost nine months for action to be taken on an appeal."

Mr Seymour Crawford (Fine Gael, Cavan-Monaghan) agreed with his two party colleagues that strict time limits were needed..