Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent)
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Question 79: To ask the Minister for Finance the most up to date estimate of the cost of answering a parliamentary question; the estimated cost to the Exchequer of this service per annum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20585/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am not aware of any study having been carried out into the cost to the Exchequer of answering a Parliamentary Question. Whether such a study would produce meaningful financial information is debatable. The cost of answering a Parliamentary Question will vary considerably according to the nature of the question asked. This would inevitably result in significant differences in the costs among Departments and indeed within a Department from time to time. As the processing of individual Parliamentary Questions is undertaken as part of the normal day to day work of individual sections within Departments it would be unnecessarily burdensome to isolate the administrative costs of processing Parliamentary Questions from the overall administrative costs of each Department.