Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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278. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the average costs associated with processing and answering written and oral parliamentary questions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49128/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, accounting to Dáil Éireann by way of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) is an important part of the work of my Department and to date this year 3,000 have been answered.  

Questions put to my Department cover the wide range of our responsibilities and those of the agencies under my Department's remit. The PQs asked vary between requests for factual information (from small specific queries to very large amounts of information broken down by e.g. year and category) to questions seeking further insight into my and my Departments thinking or the Government's political thinking on a particular issue or issues.

The work required to answer PQs, written or oral vary greatly from question to question. The work put in by individual civil servants to answering questions, and the day-to-day work that gives a civil servant the knowledge required to answer them, is an integral part of their job and not easily disaggregated.

To provide an estimate of average cost could only be obtained through the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of my Department's time and resources. It is therefore not possible to provide you with the information sought.