Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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548. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the costs to her Department to process and respond to a priority, an oral and a written Parliamentary Question. [16586/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The cost of answering a Parliamentary Question and indeed the time taken to answer all questions will vary considerably according to the nature of the question asked.

No staff in my Department are assigned full time to dealing with Parliamentary Questions. Parliamentary Questions are dealt with, as the need arises, by the staff in the sections dealing with the particular issue(s) raised in individual Parliamentary Questions. The number and level of staff and the time spent on an individual answer depends on the complexity and importance of the issue raised, the form in which the information exists in the Department and the form of the proposed response, i.e. whether oral or written.

In 2013 and to date in 2014, I have responded to some 1,670 Parliamentary Questions. Undoubtedly, a considerable amount of time is spent answering all these questions. However, it is not possible to quantify the cost for the reasons outlined above.