asked the Minister for Local Government if all local authority houses sold to tenants under the tenant purchase schemes are taken as new houses in the statistics published by his Department.

Local authority sales schemes cover practically all houses provided by local authorities, regardless of when they were built. The numbers of new houses completed by local authorities are included in the Quarterly Bulletin published by my Department and no distinction is made for statistical purposes between such houses provided for letting and those provided for sale.

The answer to the Deputy's question is no. Unfortunately, the answer given to me by the Department deals with the statistics for local authority houses. In fact, local authority houses as such are only listed once as new houses. If sold at a later stage as new or second-hand houses, they are not included for the purpose of making up the number of houses erected during the year. I think that is the question Deputy MacSharry meant to ask but is not quite covered in the statistical reply I got from my Department.

How many houses have been sold in the past 12 months?

The Deputy would have to give me notice of that question; I could not give those figures off the top of my head. If the Deputy puts down the question I would be glad to give him the information.

Question No. 21 postponed.