asked the Taoiseach the number of registered unemployed at Tullamore, Birr, Portlaoise, Portarlington, Athy and Carlow at the latest date for which figures are available.

The numbers of persons on the live register on the 26th November, 1971, at the specified local employment offices were: Tullamore, 646; Birr, 378; Portlaoise, 378; Portarlington, 207; Athy, 250; Carlow, 329.

Does the Parliamentary Secretary agree that these are unprecedentedly high figures and is he really alarmed by the increasing unemployment in these areas, particularly since this time 12 months?

No, they are certainly not unprecedented.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary not seriously perturbed by the rising unemployment in each of the towns referred to in my question? Is he aware that this is the first time in close on 30 years, since I became a Member of the House, that the unemployment figures in these areas reached such extraordinarily high proportions and what does he propose to do about it?

Naturally, any situation in which there is high unemployment concerns this party, and always has done, but I do not accept that the figures in this case are unprecedented.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary indicate in what year and at what period in any year during the past 29 years the figures have been higher?

That is a separate question.

I can give the figure in a national sense.

I am only interested in my own constituency. I put it to the Parliamentary Secretary that the unemployment figure in each of the towns mentioned is now at an all time high record and that the information he has given to the House reveals a high degree of redundancy, unemployment and widespread distress in that constituency.

The Deputy is making a statement.

I have asked the Parliamentary Secretary what the Government propose to do about the unprecedented disclosure he has made in this regard today.

I have not got quite the information the Deputy specifically requires.

Take the figures for 1954-57.

I checked the figures for 1954-57.

The Chair can only listen to one person at a time.

In that national sense, I should like to give the figure of 95,267, on 2nd February, 1957, which is a figure I have already quoted in this House.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that 29 years ago the figure was 145,000?

I referred to the figure obtaining when the party opposite had the last opportunity of being in Government, when there was a feeling of hopelessness and despair abroad in the country.

Is it in order for the Parliamentary Secretary to make a speech on questions? We have little enough time.

I apologise. I have been asked for the information.

The question did not relate to the national average of unemployment but to unemployment in certain towns in my constituency where I know, because I visit them, there is an all time record in unemployment. The Parliamentary Secretary, supported by one of his Deputies, suggested that the figures were higher in 1954-57. I want to say that that is an untruth. I have checked the figures and the figures which the Parliamentary Secretary has now given are far in excess of the worst period of the 1954-57 period.

This is enlarging the scope of the question.

The Deputy would want to recheck.

I have checked. Nobody knows that better than Deputy Cowen because there is more unemployment in Deputy Cowen's town now than ever there was in the history of the State.

What are you talking about? I know all about it. There is a higher rate of unemployment in Clara than ever there was.

There must not be argument across the House at Question Time.

The Deputy must know that a big number of persons registered in Tullamore are from Clara. I can name the people for the Deputy. I have never had such a volume of correspondence from the town of Clara as I have now.

Will Deputies cease arguing across the House?

On behalf of those people who are registered as unemployed in my constituency, I want to object strongly to the manner and which the Government, so carelessly and without thought or understanding, are treating this problem.

Sent them a Christmas card.

If I send them a Christmas Card, I will pay for it, not like the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs or the Minister for Transport and Power.

Would Deputies on all sides of the House co-operate with the Chair? There are 203 Questions. Questions not answered today will have to go over to next week. There are two hours for Questions. The Chair asks Deputies on all sides to co-operate with the Chair in letting Questions proceed.

What does the Chair think of misleading information being given? We expect to get from the Parliamentary Secretary and from all Ministers the truth in reply to Parliamentary Questions.