Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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239. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development 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. [52247/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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My Department was established on 19 July 2017. There are currently three staff located in my Department's Secretary-General's office involved centrally in the processing of Parliamentary Questions (PQs). However, staff across all units of my Department are involved in inputting to PQ replies.

In relation to bodies or agencies under the aegis of my Department, data and information is requested from those bodies or agencies, if appropriate, however, my Department provides the reply directly to the Oireachtas. Agencies or bodies have not been asked to reply directly to parliamentary questions.

In general, non-Departmental staff or public affairs and relations companies have no role in relation to drafting PQ responses. Ministerial advisers have a role in proofing the final draft replies on my behalf.

In 2017 my Department processed 311 PQs and 278 were answered directly.

To date in 2018, 1,222 PQs have been processed and 877 have been answered directly.