THE Dail sat for 99 days this year. Taken in conjunction with the sittings of committees this means the parliamentary session extended over 44 weeks.
On average, the Dail was in session 2.2 days of each of the 44 weeks of the parliamentary year. This was a slight increase on 1995 when there were 98 days of Dail and committee sittings.
The Dail adjourned for its Christmas recess yesterday and will return on January 22nd. The number of days which the parliamentary sessions cover has increased in recent years.
The autumn session, which begins at the end of September, sat for only 22 days in 1990. This year it sat for 33 days.
The length of the autumn session has varied in recent years from 20 days in 1994, during the dying days of the Reynolds government, to 34 days the following year.
To date, 47 Bills have been published; 36 of them have been enacted. There have also been 17 private members' Bills published.
Dail deputies asked the Government 19,182 oral and written questions and submitted 1,247 matters on the adjournment.
More than 450 committee meetings were held this year. The Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas believes that the committee system has proved to be an innovative method of processing parliamentary business.
In addition to its legislative programme, the Dail heard statements on the North, the beef industry, the first report of the ministerial task force on measures to reduce the demand for drugs, the NESF report on long-term unemployment initiatives, the crisis, in Zaire and the European summit meeting in Dublin.