Vol. 435 No. 10
135 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry 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.
A total of 1,903 parliamentary questions — 432 and 1,471 for oral and written answer respectively — have been tabled to my Department since the formation of the present Government. It is not possible to give the precise cost of dealing with these questions. However, in response to a question on 13 February 1992, the Minister for Finance indicated that the average cost of answering a parliamentary question was of the order of £64. On that basis the cost of dealing with 1903 questions would be about £121,800.
