Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I appreciate that. I will make two observations to the Minister. When the beef tribunal was in full flight, its chairperson stated that if Ministers had answered questions honestly, openly and accurately in the Dáil, the tribunal would never have been necessary. When the Departments of Post and Telegraphs and Social Welfare experienced telephone chaos, the numbers of questions put down by frustrated Deputies exploded because their constituents could not get a straight reply from the Departments in question. The Department of Education and Science will continue to attract 13% of parliamentary questions if it does not answer them properly.

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