asked the Minister for Lands if he is aware that employees with long service in the Forestry Division at the forests at Tigheglenn, Ashford and Kilmuray, Newtown-mountkennedy, County Wicklow, have recently been let go and if, in view of the hardship caused to these men and their families, he will take immediate steps to have them re-employed.

The number of men employed at Rathnew Forest at present is the maximum having regard to the volume of work available and no possibility is seen of any increase in the immediate future. Every effort is made to provide steady and continuous employment in State forests but some fluctuations in the level of employment are inevitable.