asked the Minister for Agriculture the average length of time between the date on which an application is made and the date a loan is issued under the Agricultural Credit Corporation's unsecured loans scheme.

To obtain the answer to this question would involve assembling all the files on which loans have been issued under the Scheme and ascertaining the length of time taken to issue the loan in each case. This would be a long and laborious process necessitating for its accomplishment the diversion of a number of members of the Corporation's staff from their normal work of dealing with applications for loans. I am not satisfied that the dislocation caused in procuring the ininformation sought would be warranted.