Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of parliamentary questions that have remained unanswered due to staff action to date in 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17257/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Given its wide remit, Ministers in my Department answer well in excess of a thousand Parliamentary Questions (PQs) each year. Indeed, in 2009 we answered over 2,000 PQs. In that regard, my officials accord a high priority to responding to Oireachtas scrutiny including in their contributions to ministerial responses to PQs.

All Parliamentary Questions are answered by Ministers on the due date, although in some situations, given the nature of the Question posed, it may not always be possible to provide detailed statistical data in the time available to answer the Question. In such situations, unless the collation of the material requested requires a disproportionate amount of resources, my Department issues a follow up reply to the Deputy concerned. My Department has processed over 400 Parliamentary Questions since the industrial action by some Civil Service unions took effect on 4th February, of which we were unable to fully answer 28 in the detail required.