(Dublin Central) asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of telephones per 100 of the population at the end of 1975.

Fourteen approximately.

(Dublin Central): How does this compare with other EEC countries?

We are well down the league but I can report that the number per 100 has been increasing: 10.4 in 1970; 10.9 in 1971; 11.3 in 1972; 12.0 in 1973; 13.0 in 1974; and 14.0 in 1975. It is going up. Some progress has been made but not nearly as rapidly as we would wish.

Those figures seem to indicate that the rate of progress for 1973, 1974, and 1975 had been slower than the rate of progress in the years immediately preceding.

In 1970 it was 10.4 compared with 10.9 in 1971 and that is not sensational. We will all make our own anthology.

(Dublin Central): Can the Minister give any indication as to how he will answer questions like this in a few years time due to the fact that the census was not taken recently?

I cannot even be certain that I will be here to answer such questions.