asked the Minister for Finance whether he is yet in a position to make a statement as to the Government's proposals for dealing with the problem of coast erosion.

The Government's intentions regarding the problem of dealing with coast erosion depend to a large extent upon the terms of the report which will be furnished in due course by the Inter-Departmental Committee on Coast Erosion. This Committee will not complete its work for some time.

Arising out of the reply of the Parliamentary Secretary, would he make a recommendation to the Coast Erosion Committee to make a special grant in view of the urgency that has arisen in Greystones, where a number of houses have been washed away, and in regard to Wicklow, a portion of which has also been threatened? Is the position this, that we must wait for the report of the Committee before a grant can be made?

I am not in a position to state that the Committee will recommend the making of any grant at all.

Would it not be better then that the Government should state definitely to public bodies that it is not their intention to make any grant at all, so that other arrangements might then be made?

Could the Parliamentary Secretary give us any idea as to when the Inter-Departmental Committee is likely to report? Will it be weeks, months or years? I think that we ought to get some idea as to when the Committee is likely to report in view of the suspense that hangs over a number of towns in connection with this matter.

I could not fix a date as to when the Committee will report. It will not be for some considerable time.