31.— (1) An appeal lies to the Irish Financial Services Appeals Tribunal (in this section called “the Tribunal”) against—

(a) the Assessor’s determination under section 25,

(b) the Assessor’s rejection of a person’s claim for compensation, or

(c) the Assessor’s determination of the sum that a person is entitled to as compensation.

(2) This section applies to the Minister in the same manner as it applies to a person who has or claims a right to compensation.

(3) The Assessor is to be the respondent to an appeal under subsection (1).

(4) On hearing an appeal under subsection (1), the Tribunal may substitute its own determination or confirm, annul or vary the determination or rejection appealed from and may make any other consequential order.

(5) The Tribunal shall determine an appeal under subsection (1) as expeditiously as possible consistent with fairness and on the basis of the material that was before the Assessor unless the Tribunal is of the opinion that a further submission or submissions should be sought.

(6) In deciding, for the purposes of an appeal under subsection (1)(a), whether the Assessor’s determination should be confirmed, annulled or varied, the test to be applied by the Tribunal is whether the appellant has established, as a matter of probability, taking into account the degree of expertise and specialist knowledge possessed by the Assessor and taking the process as a whole, that the determination was vitiated by a serious and significant error or a series of such errors.

(7) Section 25 applies to the Tribunal in making its decision in an appeal under subsection (1)(a) to the same extent as it did to the Assessor in making his or her determination under that section.

(8) The provisions (except subsections (1) and (4) of section 57L) of Chapter 3 of Part VIIA (inserted by the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2003) of the Central Bank Act 1942 apply to an appeal under this section, except that references in that Chapter to the Regulatory Authority are to be read as references to the Assessor.

(9) For the purposes of determining an appeal under this section, the Tribunal may refer a question of law to the High Court in accordance with section 57AJ (inserted by the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland Act 2003) of the Central Bank Act 1942.

(10) If the Tribunal is satisfied, on examining the documents in relation to an appeal under subsection (1), that the appeal raises no issue that the Tribunal has not already determined in connection with another such appeal, it may—

(a) strike out the first-mentioned appeal, or

(b) determine it without a hearing.

(11) In addition, if the Tribunal is satisfied that a number of appeals before it raise substantially the same issues—

(a) it may select one of those appeals as representative of all, and

(b) it may treat its decision on that appeal as determining those issues, or some of them, in each of the other appeals.

(12) The Tribunal may dismiss an appeal at any stage if the Tribunal is of the opinion that it has been made in bad faith or is frivolous, vexatious or misconceived or relates to a trivial matter.

(13) The decision of the Tribunal on an appeal under this section (including a decision made under subsection (10) without a hearing and a decision that a decision on a particular appeal is to be taken, under subsection (11), to determine an issue or issues in a number of appeals) is final.