In the last week of Dáil sittings before the Christmas break, 197 questions were put to Harney and her junior ministers Seán Power, Tim O'Malley and Brian Lenihan on issues such as lengthening waiting lists and ambulance response times. One hundred and thirty-five (over 68%) were passed on to the HSE.

The HSE's website publishes its replies to TDs' questions. But, it has published just 47 replies for the entire Dáil session from September to December 2006. This figure amounts to around 5% of the questions referred to it during this period.

"It is outrageous that the minister can get away with this lack of accountability, " said Labour's spokeswoman on health, Liz McManus. "In establishing the HSE, the minister has created a wonderful mudguard to protect her from public scrutiny in the Dáil.

"Information on the health service is more closed off than ever before, " added McManus. "And we have found to our cost with the Neary case, for example, that bad things can happen when you don't have the information."

McManus said that even when the HSE replies, it is so late that the information is out of date. "I have also got replies to other TDs' questions, " she said.

In most cases, questions to the health ministers are met with the following standard reply: "The deputy's question relates to the management and delivery of health and personal social services which are the responsibility of the Health Services Executive under the Health Act 2004. Accordingly, my department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the executive to arrange to have this matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the deputy".

Catherine Murphy, independent TD for Kildare and one of the most persistent questioners on health matters in the Dáil, said she has become totally frustrated with the brush-offs from the department.

"If you can't get the information freely what is the prospect of getting the service?" asked Murphy.

Like McManus, Murphy said that many of the replies from the HSE are months late. For example it took over four months to get a reply as to who has legal responsibility to ensure that children receive speech, language and occupational services.

"It is not untypical to receive information I have not requested in place of statistics that I have directly requested, " said the Kildare deputy.

Murphy recalled a HSE reply to a question about orthodontic treatment for a child which was sent to her on 21 November 2006 - one year after the question was asked in the Dáil and months after Murphy had resolved the problem.

The reply sent by a dental surgeon working in the HSE begins: "This representation has very recently arrived on my desk but I note that it is over 12 months since you made the representation. I do not know what has happened during this time or if you have had a response."

Murphy acknowledged that the HSE has started to give detailed briefings to local public representatives on specific health issues. "But the HSE decides the topics, not the public representatives, " she pointed out.

"It's like the attitude of the politburo in the old communist countries - tell them nothing, " she added.

"The national remit of the HSE is something which all services are affected by and the level of work for the Parliamentary Affairs Division reflects this as they are now dealing with a significant number of national queries in addition to local and regional parliamentary questions, " a spokeswoman for the HSE told the Sunday Tribune.

The spokeswoman pointed out that, in 2006, 3,600 parliamentary questions were referred to the HSE, which is almost three times the 1,388 referrals in 2005. In 2001, the Department of Health said replies to parliamentary questions should be delivered in 20 days.

"Response times are continuing to improve but due to the complexity of some questions and the level of work required to generate the response, not all replies issue within 20 days, " said the HSE spokeswoman.