asked the Minister for Finance if he will state with reference to a reply of the 5th March last regarding signs for Leinster House when replacements for the temporary signs were bespoken; when the supply of them has been promised; and how soon after they are supplied they will be erected.

An order for the provision of permanent signs has not yet been placed because the preparatory work involved has not been completed. It is hoped to place the order next month and that all of the signs will have been delivered and placed in position by July.

Could the Parliamentary Secretary say why it was not feasible when the building was designed to order some of the plates which were obviously going to be needed to bear such words as "Fir" and "Mná", and why has it taken so long for the Department of Finance to take the simple step of ordering signs which were so obviously necessary?

If Deputy Ryan has any difficulty in finding where these establishments are I should be glad to assist him. I do agree the temporary signs ought to be replaced and will be replaced, but it is not a matter of the most vital importance provided you know where the "Fir" and the "Mná" are.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that parliamentarians from all over the world, particularly members of the Council of Europe who have resorted to this building for meetings over the last few years, have been sniggering at Ireland in that the national Parliament building, instead of having proper signs, has been festooned with filthy pieces of paper in an increasing degree of disintegration and does he think that having spent such a large amount of public money on a wholly uncomfortable building that as the way the building should be presented to the world?

I think Deputy Ryan is bordering on the indecent when he talks about filthy pieces of paper, but I am glad to be able to assure him that we are going to erect permanent signs and erect them soon.

This is typical of governmental inefficiency and Board of Works inefficiency in particular.

It is also typical of the niggling type of questions Deputy Ryan commonly asks.

I am appalled that parliamentarians of the world should think that all we can afford in the national Parliament are pieces of paper.

Surely it is important that people would know where the "Mná" are?

I thought Deputy Ryan's anxiety was that he himself did not know where the "Fir" was and as he continued to speak I became even more convinced that this was the case.