Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Of the 58 written questions tabled to the Minister for Social and Family Affairs yesterday, 43 or 74% of the replies were along the following lines: "Due to staff action currently being taken, I regret that I am unable to provide the information sought by the Deputy". Of the six questions tabled to the Minister for Defence, a role the Taoiseach recently assumed, a similar reply was provided in three cases.

Deputies who table a question to a Minister are asking the Minister for a reply, not the Civil Service. Ministers are constitutionally obliged to respond to questions by providing a real reply rather than the type of reply to which I referred. If they are unable to fulfil their constitutional obligations to the House and its Members and cannot organise, administer and manage their Departments in such a way that they are in a position to provide replies to the Dáil, the Government is dysfunctional and perhaps it should consider options on how to deal with the issue.

Deputies, as Members of Parliament, are entitled to receive a reply when they ask a parliamentary question and Ministers are constitutionally obliged to provide a reply to the House. While Deputies may be sympathetic when a Minister has a problem with staff in his or her office or whatever the case may be, the Minister is still obliged to provide an answer to the House. If Ministers are in a position that they cannot provide a normal written reply to the Dáil in the manner sought by Deputies, alternative arrangements will have to be made for them to come into the House and provide the answers orally.

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