317 Mr. V. Brady asked the Minister for Labour if he will give details of the number of Parliamentary Questions tabled to him for the year 1991 and the total cost involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

A total of 554 parliamentary questions were tabled to the Minister for Labour in 1991. Of these, 404 were answered. The remainder were either withdrawn or were not appropriate for reply by my Department.

In a reply to a parliamentary question on 13 February 1992, the Minister for Finance estimated that the average cost of answering a parliamentary question is about £64.

Based on this estimate, the total cost to my Department of answering parliamentary questions in 1991 would have been in the region of £26,000.