andMr. Leonard asked the Minister for Local Government the names of the local authorities who submitted five-year housing programmes and reached their target for the first two years; and the percentage by which the others failed to reach the targets set in their programmes.

The information sought is not available in my Department.

I am sure the Minister is aware that the local authorities were asked to submit a five-year housing plan. The county council of which I am a member submitted a plan based on the needs of persons on the waiting list. Is the Minister aware that for 1975 we had planned for 197 houses?

I am sorry. Who are "we"?

Monaghan County Council of which I am a member. We planned 197 houses for 1975 and, due to a scarcity of funds, we were able to commence 28 houses only. For the year 1976——

Order. The Deputy should seek information, not impart it. The Deputy must put a precise question.

Is the Minister aware that in 1976 our projection was for 130 starts and we have sufficient finance to commence 26 houses only? Is he also aware that there is an urgent need for 35 farm homes and we have only £25,000 left out of our allocation for this year to provide them? Is the Minister aware of that situation and what can be done about it?

I am not so aware. Of course the Deputy is aware that there will be a further allocation where it is needed. The Deputy might go back a little further than the past two years. The reason so many homes were required is that practically none were built for years in Monaghan except a few pre-fabs here and there for people for whom houses could not be built. Deputy Leonard must be aware of this because he has been a member of Monaghan County Council for some time. He is trying to throw on to my shoulders responsibility for something which was building up over the years. He cannot get away with that.

Will the Minister not accept that he asked the local authorities to submit a five-year housing plan and they submitted it in the hope the money would be available?

Many of them did not do so.

This can be very misleading especially for people waiting for a house. Members of the local authority informed them we planned to build 197 houses.

Brief questions, please. I want to bring in Deputy Faulkner as well. I am passing on to another question.

May I comment in reply to Deputy Leonard?

I asked a question about the five-year housing plan.

Deputy Leonard, please do not disrupt Question Time. Otherwise I shall pass on immediately to the next question.

Will the Chair let the Minister answer.

I was, when the Deputy interrupted.

I have given the reply. I am sorry if Deputy Leonard was not listening. I said the information sought is not available in my Department. The reason it is not available is that the housing authority did not prepare the follow up plan as they were asked to do. That is really beside the point because what Deputy Leonard is trying to say is that last year his county council prepared for many houses which were not built. Now he is deliberately taking the county apart from the urban areas and he is saying that there was, in fact, a smaller number of houses built, according to him, in the county and he is alleging the same thing is likely to happen this year. I am putting the answer straight to him: in the years previous to that Monaghan County Council built no houses at all in the rural areas except small pre-fabs for old folk and I think anyone who tries to blame me——

Order.

There is one point I want clarification on——

Will Deputy Leonard please restrain himself?

——and the Minister is giving false information to us.

Order.

The people who live in Monaghan town are Monaghan people the same as the people who live in the county are Monaghan people.

The Ceann Comhairle will agree it is difficult for a Deputy to restrain himself when he cannot get an answer to any question he asks the Minister for Local Government in this House. Will the Minister agree that submitting a five-year housing plan was simply a public relations act and he never had any intention of providing the finances?

Order. I am calling the next question, Question No. 19.

On a point of order, I would like to ask on a point of information——

What is the point?

The point of information is that the Minister's plan did not include urban areas.

That is neither a point of order nor a point of explanation. I have called the next question.

The Minister is insinuating I deliberately misled him by keeping the urbans out of this.

A Cheann Comhairle, on a point of clarification, and it will be low key, I think the Minister indicated that the information sought is not available to him and the reason he gave is that the local authority have not submitted their plans, as I understand him.

Some of them.

Could the Minister tell us how many have done so and what has been done in respect of those who have?

I can give him the many that have done so. There was a five-year plan which ended on 31st March, 1972, and that resulted in 4,100 local authority houses being built that year. Now I do not know what happened afterwards but last year we built 8,972 houses. Opposition Deputies can have all the plans they want, but I want houses and I am getting them built.

Order, Question No. 19.