Joan Collins
Question:265. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the costs to his Department to process and respond to a priority, an oral and a written parliamentary question. [16594/14]
View answerTuesday, 8 April 2014
Questions (265)
Written answers
Data is not kept in my Department on the specific costs of processing and responding to Parliamentary Questions. Answering Parliamentary Questions is an activity which is integral to my Department’s activities, and the costs are spread across a wide number of business units; there are also costs arising in the Oireachtas for which my Department would not be accountable. In the two most recent calendar years for which statistics are available, a total of 1,806 Parliamentary Questions were asked to my Department in 2012, and a total of 1,534 Parliamentary Questions were asked in 2013.
No staff in my Department are assigned full time to dealing with Parliamentary Questions. Parliamentary Questions are dealt with by staff in the sections that have responsibility for the particular issue(s) raised in individual Parliamentary Questions and processing is undertaken as part of the normal day to day work of that particular section. The amount of staff time spent on an individual answer depends on the nature and complexity of the issue raised, and the form in which the information exists within my Department.