Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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61. To ask the Taoiseach the number of parliamentary questions his Department has processed in the past three years to date; the number of questions answered directly; the number of questions referred to bodies or agencies under the aegis of his Department for direct reply; the number of staff who are assigned to his parliamentary questions section; and if non-departmental staff, advisers and-or public affairs and relations companies have composed parliamentary question replies or had an act or hand in forming parliamentary question replies in the timeframe specified. [52248/18]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department answered 1,656 oral and 1,442 written Parliamentary Questions from December 2015 to November 2018. All questions were answered directly.

One member of staff has the role of Parliamentary Question coordinator amongst other duties, and staff from across my Department are involved in processing replies to Parliamentary Questions in addition to their routine duties.

Answers to Parliamentary Questions are composed by Departmental staff only, this includes political advisors.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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62. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence the number of parliamentary questions his Department has processed in the past three years to date; the number of questions answered directly; the number of questions referred to bodies or agencies under the aegis of his Department for direct reply; the number of staff who are assigned to his parliamentary questions section; and if non-departmental staff, advisers and-or public affairs and relations companies have composed parliamentary question replies or had an act or hand in forming parliamentary question replies in the timeframe specified. [52238/18]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The number of Parliamentary Questions answered directly by my Department in the years 2016, 2017, and from 1 January 2018 to 22 November 2018, is set out in the following table.

My Department did not refer any Parliamentary Question to an external body or agency for direct reply.

My Department does not have a specific section to deal with Parliamentary Questions, rather replies are prepared in the first instance by departmental staff dealing with the matter which is the subject of each individual question. From time to time, one or both of my advisers may input into a reply to specific questions.  However, questions are not referred to external bodies such as public relations companies.