Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)

Before the Taoiseach answers that question, in case anyone gets the impression from Deputy Martin's statement that the Taoiseach wrote to me 68 times, or whatever it was, and in case anyone thinks I am influenced by anyone writing to me, I wish to make it quite clear and to put on record that all Departments regularly, one would hope through the Minister, seek to have questions disallowed. It goes through a procedure and, in most cases, where possible, we ignore that request. Consequently, it is wrong to suggest or let the public feel that people lobby me in some way to disallow questions. This is not true and I do not wish there to be any misunderstanding in this regard. The only way in which a question is disallowed is if it is not in accordance with Standing Orders.

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