Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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255. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of representations he has received from Members of the Oireachtas and the number of these to which he had not issued a substantive reply by 31 May 2016, by month of initial receipt, from 1 January 2015 to 30 April 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15035/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department received approximately 8,000 representations in the period 1 January 2015 – 30 April 2016. As the Deputy will appreciate, the Department receives representations from many different groups and individuals including Oireachtas members, members of the public, educational representative groups, associations and other interested parties.

In 2015 the Department received approximately 7,100 representations. For 2015 approximately 1,200 representations have not been classified as completed. As the Correspondence Database does not record the information in the format as requested by the Deputy I am not in a position to confirm the number that refer to Oireachtas members only. In order to provide the information in the format sought it would be necessary to view each outstanding piece of correspondence which would take an inordinate amount of time and would not be a prudent use of limited staffing resources.

For the information of the Deputy, since my own appointment as Minister for Education and Skills on 5 May 2016 463 representations have been received from Oireachtas members, the general public and other groups. Replies have issued to 323 and 140 are currently being dealt with within the Department.