Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have a small question to begin with so that I do not forget about it. Mr. Breslin said that in 2017, the Department processed more than 11,000 parliamentary questions, 22% of all parliamentary questions for Ministers across Government. I know from my experience that practically everything I table in parliamentary questions to the Department of Health receives a one line reply, referring it to the HSE. I am not asking Mr. Breslin to do it now, but will he give us a breakdown of that 22%, indicating how many go to the HSE? It probably overstates the amount of work that falls on the Department and understates the work that falls on the HSE in responding to questions. Many of the questions that I pose which go to the HSE can take some time to come back. It would be useful to hear from the HSE the quantum of work relating to parliamentary questions. If that is not available now, it would be quite useful for us to get information.

I have a number of questions relating to how money is spent when people are in an acute hospital because there is inadequate provision of home care packages, although I know it is always finite. The witnesses gave us a note on that. I asked some parliamentary questions about this which the HSE replied to. Like most other Deputies, we look at people coming through the door in our constituency offices. We see the kinds of challenges that people face. It would give us some sort of insight about how services go and are provided. What is the average cost of an overnight acute hospital stay?