Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Parliamentary Questions, priority, oral and written, are dealt with by the staff of the Divisions within my Department with responsibility for the issues raised in individual Questions. The number and level of staff, and the time spent on individual replies, depends on the complexity and urgency of the issues raised, the ease of access to the required information, and the degree of cross-Divisional coordination required in preparing the reply. The cost of answering Parliamentary Questions can vary considerably, therefore, and it would be extremely difficult to identify the administrative costs associated with the processing of individual Questions. My Department introduced an electronic system to expedite the processing of Parliamentary Questions in 2013. This has greatly improved the administration process and has reduced the time and cost involved in replying to Parliamentary Questions generally.