asked the Minister for Local Government the average cost of surface dressing of (i) a mile of county road (ii) a mile of national primary, secondary or main road and (iii) a mile of local improvement scheme grant road in respect of each of the years ended 31st March, 1973, 31st December, 1974 and 31st December, 1975.

Information in the form sought by the Deputy is not available in my Department.

In the case of county roads particulars furnished by road authorities do not enable national averages to be calculated. Since there can be wide variations in unit costs for national routes, depending on width of road, length of haul and other factors, the calculation of average costs would not be a productive exercise. Such information as is furnished to the Department in respect of the local improvement scheme would not enable such calculations to be made.

Is the Minister really serious in telling the House that his Department have no information whatsoever as to what is the average cost of surface-dressing a mile of a county road?

Yes.

That his Department have no information whatsoever as to what is the cost of surface-dressing a mile of a secondary road; that his Department and he has no information of the cost of surface-dressing a mile of a local improvements scheme road?

The Deputy is asking a rather stupid question but I will try to give him a reasonable answer.

That is not fair treatment of a Member.

If he asks a stupid question, I suppose he has to get an answer.

Order.

It would be a very stupid Department that would claim that one cannot get an average costing from a list of figures. There is no list of figures from which one cannot get an average costing and the Minister knows that damn well.

Order. Deputies must put questions in an orderly fashion to Ministers.

If Deputy Wilson would spend his time averaging the cost of every 100 yards or every half mile of all types of roads all over the county and then put down a question here it would not mean one damn thing. I thought even Deputy Wilson might understand that. The situation is that, in order to get an average, it would be necessary to get all the roads of the country, find out how much it costs to do them and find out the area done. To try to average that for the benefit of Deputy O'Leary and Deputy Wilson would be rather stupid.

They do a lot of stupid things in that Department anyway.

That will never happen the Deputy.

Is the Minister aware that it appears to this House that the only reason he does not want to give the information I requested in my supplementaries is that it would be embarrassing to him and his Department because costs have increased so much and at so rapid a pace during the past three years or so that he cannot now justify the road grant being made available to local authorities?

That question ranks with the previous one.

Order. Deputy Coughlan. Please, Deputy Wilson, allow Questions to continue.

When coolness prevails within the Fianna Fáil confusion may I ask a supplementary question of the Minister? Is it not a fact that in all areas where road surfacing, repairing and making are concerned different conditions apply because of the convenience of the quarries, labour and machinery involved, so that prices vary from county to county and city to city. It is as simple as that.

Arising out of Deputy Coughlan's question, that is not the issue. Is the Minister stating that this information is not available?

I am stating that there is not information about the average cost of this type of work on roads available in the Department. Deputies will understand that it would not be possible to get it.

Is the Minister aware that such information is available in each local authority?

The Deputy is talking about two different things.

It is available and the Minister knows it is but he is afraid to publish it.

The Minister will agree that his Department some time ago put out a plan for a national road network involving various highways and motorways throughout the country. On what figures was that plan and its costing based if these average figures are not known?

If the Deputy likes to put down a question next week I will be glad to give him the full information he is seeking.

Can the Minister explain how that national network plan could have been costed if this information is not available to his Department?

If the Deputy puts down a question I will be glad to answer it.

Why does the Minister not answer the question today?