Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

The question the Taoiseach is answering orally today is what his communications unit does. My parliamentary question was whether his communications unit noticed this story in the paper. He refused to answer that and I had to raise it three or four times. If the Taoiseach checks that in the Official Report, he will find out how many times I raised it here. I said we would make the Taoiseach accountable in the Dáil. That is the purpose of this question. That is why this trouble happened. The Taoiseach refused to answer my question. Worse than that, the question — did the communications unit there notice it? — was sent to a Department in a format which the Department could not possibly answer because it does not have a communications unit. This makes the parliamentary question process look foolish. That is why I am putting pressure on the Taoiseach today to be more transparent, open and accountable. That is our job and we will make sure the Taoiseach responds.

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