asked the Minister for Local Government the criteria by which his Department will calculate private housing completions in future, using ESB data on new meter installations.

Since November, 1976, my Department receive from the Electricity Supply Board a monthly return of all new dwellings connected to the electricity supply in each county, excluding local authority demountable dwellings and private house conversions. The number of local authority demountable dwellings is ascertained separately from local authorities and it is estimated that 450 dwellings are now provided each year by the conversion of houses into flats.

The number of dwellings provided by public authorities is ascertained from these authorities. By deducting this number from the total number of dwellings provided, the number of private house completions is calculated. Representatives of the building industry consider that the above methodology offers the best prospect of getting reliable figures of private house completions in 1977.

Would the Minister agree that, as houses under the new system will become completed houses in the statistical sense immediately they are occupied whereas previously they did not become completed in the statistical sense until the final grant was paid—which could be months, and, in some instances, even years after occupation—in the first year at least of the new system completed housing statistics will be artificially swollen and will give an inflated picture of the housing situation?

I am grateful to Deputy Faulkner for believing that we built more houses last year than we did. The situation is that such houses will be counted only when the ESB is connected to them. If Deputy Faulkner has a better idea perhaps he would write me a letter, or call in to see me and let me know because the building industry, the Department of Local Government and the ESB have agreed that this is the best way to do it. If Deputy Faulkner has a better way I should love to hear it.

The supplementary question I asked has not been answered by the Minister. What I am pointing out is that houses which were regarded previously as completed in a statistical sense on the basis of grants paid—which very often were not paid for months or perhaps years after the houses were occupied—will become completed houses in the statistical sense as soon as they are occupied because one must assume that they will be connected to the electricity supply before they are occupied. Therefore, we will have for quite a while, for comparative purposes, an inflated picture of the number of houses actually built.

I am afraid we are not having questions.

Deputy Faulkner is getting somewhat mixed up on statistics. Such houses will be counted only once. If there were houses built last year—as Deputy Faulkner says—or built this year and they are completed and occupied, the fact that they are counted as soon as the ESB connection is made to them is the very same as if they were counted when the grant was paid—the grant can be paid more quickly some times than at other times. It makes no difference at all; they will be counted only once. By no stretch of the imagination could we be connecting now houses built by Fianna Fáil in 1971-72. I think that is what the Deputy is trying to get at.

Question No. 25. A very brief final supplementary question from Deputy Faulkner.

Of course there will be a difference.

Questions please, Deputy Faulkner. We must proceed by way of question, not debate.

Would the Minister not agree that if a house was built in March, 1975 that house would not be reckoned as a housing statistic until the final grant was paid—which could be months later—whereas, in relation to the new system, to which I do not object except for comparative purposes, a house built in March, 1977 would be counted immediately as a statistic and that, therefore, there would be far more houses compressed into the quarter ended 31st March, 1977 than into the quarter ended 31st March, 1975?

Therefore, Deputy Faulkner is saying that we should leave a certain number of houses over until the following year so that the figure would not appear so large. The Deputy is not being very sensible in his question and less sensible in his supplementaries. I cannot see any point in the supplementary questions at all.

I have given Deputy Faulkner every facility and I must move on to the next question.

Would the Minister agree that he has been quoted as saying that there were more than 9,000 ESB connections between November, 1976, and January, 1977, at a time when statistics showed a dramatic decline?

The Deputy is imparting information rather than seeking it.

It is a good job I am because I am not getting any from the Minister.

The Deputy has repeated the same old raiméis again and again in the House. He does not know what he is talking about. I have a certain amount of sympathy with him because he has to try to make the best of a bad brief. He attempts to prove when he gets a reply to a question that it is not the information he wants. He tries to give the impression that everybody, with the exception of himself, makes wrong statements. The situation is that 100,000 houses were built in four years and that is what is sticking in the Deputy's throat.

Pope Tully; infallible.

I should like to assure the Minister that I carry out a thorough research on the questions I put down and I know exactly what I am talking about. It is a fact that there are 26,000 unemployed in the building and construction industry, as I stated.

The Deputy never worked on a building site and he would not know what a building construction worker looks like.

I get more votes from such workers than the Minister.

We will see after the election.