Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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243. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection 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. [52240/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The information sought by the Deputy is contained in the following table:

* Till end September (latest data available)

All questions were answered directly, with input from agencies under the Department's remit, as required. None were referred for direct answer by the agencies.

There are approximately 600 staff members of varying grades involved at some level in distributing, answering and submitting PQs for approval across the Department.  Responses to all PQs are prepared by Department staff and approved at senior management level within the Department and then submitted to the Minister for approval.