Vol. 435 No. 10
118 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the number of parliamentary questions for oral and written answer, respectively, tabled to his Department since the formation of the present Government; and the total cost of dealing with these questions.
My Department came into existence on 20 January 1993. Since then, the number of parliamentary questions tabled was 776 of which 394 were oral and 382 were written.
It would not be possible to give details of the total cost involved without undertaking a major costing exercise in respect of each parliamentary question tabled. However, I would refer the Deputy to the extensive survey of such costs conducted in Government Departments in 1982. This revealed that the average cost of answering a parliamentary question was about £40. Based on the general level of inflation since 1982, the equivalent cost in 1993 would be about £65.
