Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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589. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of parliamentary replies issued by him or Ministers of State from his Department to this Deputy on a yearly basis from 2011 to date in 2013; the number of these replies that contained an undertaking to provide information or extra information requested either from his Department or a body under the aegis of his Department; if he intends to begin replying to Parliamentary Questions on the record of Dáil Éireann with answers from bodies under the aegis of his Department, including bodies such as Irish Rail / Iarnród Éireann, the Irish Aviation Authority, Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, the National Transport Authority, the National Roads Authority, the Railway Procurement Agency, the Road Safety Authority, Fáilte Ireland and the Irish Sports Council; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that other Government Department with bodies under their aegis provide written answers on the record of Dáil Eireann without having the bodies reply to the matter directly in private to Deputies; if he intends to rectify this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29061/13]

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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596. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the number of parliamentary replies issued by him or Ministers of State from his Department to this Deputy on a yearly basis from 2011 to date in 2013; the number of these replies that contained an undertaking to provide information or extra information requested either from his Department or a body under the aegis of his Department; if he intends to begin replying to Parliamentary Questions on the record of Dáil Éireann with answers from bodies under the aegis of his Department; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that other Government Departments with bodies under their aegis provide written answers on the record of Dáil Éireann without having the bodies reply to the matter directly in private to Deputies; if he intends to rectify this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29415/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 589 and 596 together.

Based on an examination of the Dáil record, the Deputy has asked me 48 written questions as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport since the convening of the 31^st Dáil. 17 of these questions were referred to agencies under my Department's remit as under various pieces of legislation, those bodies had responsibility for such matters.

As the Deputy will be aware, prior to the current Dáil, the practice had been to seek the disallowance of parliamentary questions which related to operational matters of agencies and bodies under the aegis of my Department. This was an unsatisfactory practice which limited the perception of the accountability of such bodies to elected members of Dáil Éireann.

Soon after my appointment as Minister, I implemented the practice of referring such questions to the body concerned and provided a time limit (ten working days) for them to reply to such questions. I believe this is a significant advancement in the accountability of state agencies under my Department's remit.

However, I do recognise that as these replies are directly to the Deputy concerned they are not publicly available. Therefore, I will request that in replying to such questions that the agencies concerned would copy their responses to the Oireachtas Library so that they can be available to members of the Oireachtas.