Parliamentary questions tabled in the Dail were clogging up the system of public administration, contended Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind). Nonsensical queries were wasting the time of public servants and were diminishing the role of the Dail, he said.
Mr O'Toole was speaking in the debate on the 1996 report of the Ombudsman.
There should be an easier way to obtain the necessary information direct from the relevant Government departments. The present approach was a gross interference with the work of public servants, who found themselves, week after week, producing longwinded replies to long-winded queries about minor matters, with the responses being circulated to all kinds of residents' and local groups.
A new approach must be found, Mr O'Toole said.