asked the Minister for Finance if he will state whether he proposes to issue permits to persons resident outside the County Kildare to purchase turf which is available for sale in the county.

A permit to purchase turf in the turf areas is not necessary. The class of persons to whom and the circumstances under which licences may be granted for the removal of turf from County Kildare and other turf areas into the non-turf areas are set out in a notice published in the daily Press on the 21st March, 1942. Any good quality turf produced in County Kildare in 1941 or 1942 which is offered for sale at a reasonable price will be purchased by fuel importers.

Would the Parliamentary Secretary say whether it is possible for private persons to purchase turf in County Kildare at prices substantially less than those charged by Fuel Importers, and substantially less than those charged by turf merchants?

I do not understand the Deputy's question.

The question is this: Will the Parliamentary Secretary say whether it is possible for a private person in Dublin to purchase turf in County Kildare, and to get a permit, either himself or through the person from whom the turf was purchased, to transport that turf to Dublin, and that that turf can be bought in County Kildare at a price less than that charged by the coal merchants?

Yes. It would be quite possible for a person to buy turf in Kildare and bring it to Dublin at a cheaper rate. The turf which is sold through the merchants in Dublin is turf which has borne the average of all the costs of all the turf in all the places from which it has to be brought to Dublin.

What is the Parliamentary Secretary's definition of a reasonable price?

That is certainly another question.

It certainly is not a relevant supplementary.

May I take it, therefore, that turf which is available for sale in Kildare—and there is an abundance of it—can only be bought through fuel merchants in Dublin by persons who are prepared to pay 64/- per ton for it?

The Deputy may take it that there was no surplus turf produced in Kildare last year, and that every bit of turf which is available in Kildare for purchase to be used for the benefit of people in the non-turf areas this year will be purchased for the purpose of distribution to them through the existing channels.

That means £3 4s. a ton, and you can get it locally at £2?

Yes, and I heard people actually advocating the giving of facilities to people who are selling it at £7 10s. a ton.

That statement, of course, is untrue.

Order.

"Order" says the disorderly Minister for Local Government.