220 Mr. Connolly asked the Taoiseach the number of parliamentary questions replied to by his Department in 2006; the cost involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4739/07]

I replied to 941 Parliamentary Questions in 2006. Some 714 of these were oral questions and 227 were written questions. It is not possible to distinguish the cost to my Department of answering these Parliamentary Questions from the overall administrative cost associated with the operation of the Department more generally. The full cost in answering these Parliamentary Questions would also need to take account of the costs arising for the Houses of the Oireachtas.