Dail Recess

Dail Eireann Goes into Summer Recess Following Busy Parliamentary Session
Study Shows Oireachtas Compares Well with Other Parliaments in Sitting Days and Other Indicators
8th July 2010
Today, Thursday, 8th July, D il ireann will adjourn until September 2010 for its summer recess.
On conclusion of today’s business, the D il will have sat for a total of 100 days, totalling over 863 hours during the last parliamentary session, between 1st September 2009 and 8th July 2010.
Seanad ireann will remain in session throughout next week and Oireachtas Committees will continue to sit during the recess. Members will also continue to carry out their duties as public representatives by working locally and nationally on behalf of their constituents.
During the course of this parliamentary session, the D il has handled a heavy workload, as can be seen from the following statistics:
Committee Meetings:

A total of 728 Oireachtas Committee meetings have taken place between the 6th July 2009 and 4th July 2010. This represents a total time commitment of 1,278 hours. Oireachtas Committees will remain extremely active during the D il recess with a total of 88 meetings due to be held in this period.
Legislation:

Overall, 42 bills were initiated in D il Eireann, 38 of which have been enacted.
Matters on the adjournment debate:

There were a total of 1,082 matters submitted to be raised on the daily adjournment in D il ireann, with 333 selected. Adjournment debates consider relevant issues of local, regional and national significance. These figures refer to the period 16th September - 30th June 2010.
Parliamentary Questions:

In total, 53,222 parliamentary questions (PQs) were processed during the period 1st July 2009 to 30th June 2010. PQs are written or oral questions on a range of topics submitted by TDs to be answered by the relevant Government Minister, Department or State Bodies.
Comparative Benchmarking of Parliaments

In a comparative study comparing performance of the Oireachtas against other parliaments in fields such as sittings times and recess weeks, the Oireachtas performed well in key areas including:
Number of Sittings and Sitting Hours: The Oireachtas performs strongly when benchmarked against other national parliaments in terms of the total number of sittings and sitting hours, recording third place.
Recess Weeks: When comparing the number of recess weeks in the nine parliaments surveyed, the Oireachtas finishes in joint third place with the UK and Belgium.
Parliamentary Questions: Based on the number of questions tabled, the Oireachtas registered second highest out of 13 national parliaments surveyed and finishes in first place in terms of the highest number of questions per member.
Visitors: In terms of visitors, when benchmarked internationally, the Houses of the Oireachtas is in third place per head of population, with 103,315 visitors in 2009.