asked the Minister for Justice the number of occasions on which an employer applied to the courts for an injunction to prevent picketing during 1976 and 1977; and the number of occasions on which these applications were upheld.

The information sought by the Deputy is not available from existing court statistics and could be complied only by the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of staff time. I can say, however, that interim injunctions to prevent picketing were granted by the High Court in 22 cases during 1976 and in 23 cases in 1977 up to a recent date. I can also say that, in each of the years referred to, there would have been a number of occasions on which applications for such injunctions were refused.