Questions from TDs cost up to €166,000 per day

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS are spending up to €166,000 a day responding to an unprecedented numbers of parliamentary questions (PQs) from members of the new Dáil.

TDs asked 833 questions on a single day last week, the highest number so far this year. It is not clear whether last Tuesday’s tally is a record.

The number of questions asked by individual TDs varies hugely, with one Fine Gael deputy, Bernard Durkan, responsible for 528 questions so far this year, equivalent to over 18 per sitting day.

While no TD failed to ask any questions, in the current Dáil just one question apiece has been tabled by Independent TDs Stephen Donnelly and John Halligan, Fine Gael’s Sean Conlan and Arthur Spring of Labour.

In 2008 the Department of Enterprise estimated it cost €200 to answer a PQ.

Using this rule of thumb, it has cost over €2.2 million to answer the 11,017 questions tabled in the 30th and 31st Dáils so far this year.

Parliamentary questions are one of the main means for TDs to hold the government to account, though critics say the information could often be obtained in other cheaper ways.

There are few limits on the number of questions a TD can ask or on the range of topics. Some questions are answered orally by the relevant Minister, but most are for written answer.

Mr Durkan, who has been the deputy with the highest number of PQs to his name in recent years, has said asking parliamentary questions should be “part and parcel” of what a TD does.

After Mr Durkan the highest number of PQs has been tabled by Labour’s Jack Wall, with 417 questions, followed by Independent TD Finian McGrath with 315. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is responsible for 291 questions this year, though many of these may have been submitted on behalf of party colleagues. Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked 272 questions, while Taoiseach Enda Kenny was responsible for 188 questions over the period, which includes the start of the year when he was opposition leader.

Deputies who largely eschew asking parliamentary questions include independent TDs Michael Lowry (eight questions so far this year) and Mick Wallace (four questions), and Labour’s Alex White (two questions).

Last year, a total of 53,171 questions were tabled during the 100 days the Dail sat.

The estimated cost of answering these questions came to over EUR10.6 million.

TDs may ask questions relating to a particular minister’s department or to an issue that the minister is responsible for.

They are limited to asking each minister two oral questions each but there is no limit to the number of written questions a deputy can submit. Minister answer questions on each Dáil sitting day on a five-week rota.