Parliamentary Questions Costs

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

Questions (151)

Joan Collins

Question:

151. Deputy Joan Collins asked the Minister for Finance the costs to his Department to process and respond to a priority, an oral and a written parliamentary question. [16591/14]

View answer

Written answers

Servicing the parliamentary process through answering Parliamentary Questions (PQs) is a core responsibility of all Department of Finance staff. Accordingly, my officials have not estimated a specific cost for the process of responding to PQs.

In line with my Department's determination to improve efficiencies across all the ways in which we work, a central coordination unit is responsible for ensuring all PQs are dealt with appropriately and in a timely manner. In 2013, the Department began the process of improving IT infrastructure and information systems, not only to ensure that efficiencies are achieved but also to ensure better knowledge-sharing and information management. As part of the roll-out of this IT strategy, in the past number of months my Department has rolled out the new ePQ system for the electronic processing and management of Parliamentary Questions.