How much does it take to answer a Dáil question? €15,000

THE Special Liquidators of the controversial IBRC bank, KPMG, have claimed that answering two Dáil questions about the bailed out bank’s affairs would cost the taxpayer €15,000... plus VAT, the Mail on Sunday has learned.

Fianna Fáil Finance spokesman Michael McGrath recently asked the Minister for Finance if, following their appointment, the Special Liquidator of IBRC changed the interest rates being charged by the bank on any commercial loans.

The Fianna Fáil spokesman also asked the Minister the date of the appointment of the Special Liquidator in respect of IBRC as at 31 December 2014; as at 31 December 2015 and to date; the number and value of commercial loans being charged at interest rates.

Parliamentary questions are generally answered at an average cost to the taxpayer of €200.

However, a response from the Department of Finance informed Mr McGrath that answering the two questions would take more than a month and would cost a minimum of €15,000.

An email by an official from the Department of Finance to Mr McGrath, seen by the Irish Mail on Sunday, informed the FF deputy that KPMG had told the department that the liquidators ‘have advised me that they expect to have a response to each question within four to five weeks at a cost to the liquidation of €15,000 plus VAT’.

KPMG, the special liquidators, have to date been paid more than €76m for their work in untangling the affairs of a bank whose bail-out has cost the tax-payer more than €35bn.

An astonished Mr McGrath said that he had been ‘taken aback at the cost that would have had to be incurred in answering these questions’.

In the wake of recent controversies over the frivolous misuse of Dáil questions, Mr McGrath stressed that these were ‘reasonable questions which were submitted with the public interest in mind’.

Mr McGrath ultimately decided to ‘withdraw the questions on the basis that I would not want to be responsible for imposing these costs on the general public’.

The Fianna Fáil spokesperson, however, expressed concern that charging large fees to answer questions could have a chilling effect on the transparency of government institutions and the ability of TDs to hold them accountable.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday he said; ‘I sincerely hope this does not become a trend’.

‘If members of parliament are in any way constrained in getting answers to probing and detailed questions about public policy and how it is applied, it is the general public who will ultimately lose out from the resulting loss of transparency’, he added.

‘I hope this does not become a trend’