asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if he will give details of (a) the monitoring and reviewing of industrial progress, (b) the identifying of obstacles to industrial growth and the suggesting of solutions, and (c) the co-ordination of activities of existing State agencies to maximise their contribution to industrial development that has been carried out by the Industrial Development Consortium.

I would refer the Deputy to the reply to a question on this matter on 26 April 1978, which summarised the activities of the consortium to that date. I would add that the studies referred to in that reply are in progress.

Will the Minister state if the consortium have held any further meetings since that date?

Not since the answer given previously.

Will the Minister state on how many occasions the consortium have met since their inception?

That is set out in the previous reply.

Will the Minister state if there has been any increase on the three meetings held since the consortium were set up?

I have just answered Deputy Kelly on that.

Would the Minister agree that three is quite extraordinary since its inception?

I agree that three meetings have been held.

This is certainly progress.

Is the Minister telling the House that they have not met since last April?

Yes.

Would the Minister care to comment on that?

No.

I do not blame the Minister.

In view of the fact that this consortium have met on only three occasions since they were first established, is any useful purpose being served by the continuation of this organisation?

That is a separate question.

As in similar matters Deputy Desmond seems to have lost sight of what the whole role of this consortium was to be. This consortium were set up to give a new direction and sense of purpose. It is not necessary to have daily meetings to do that. The whole role of this consortium is flexibility and co-ordination. The optimum co-ordination is necessary to get the maximum contribution to industrial development.

We are not talking shop. We are there as a co-ordinating body.

The consortium seem to have no sense of purpose. What sense of purpose can they transmit to others? They have had three meetings. They have no office, no staff, no plant, no equipment.

4.

asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy (a) if he is aware of reports of an informal association of businessmen prepared to assist in industrial development and in the rescue of firms in financial difficulties; (b) how he envisages the relationship, official and unofficial, between this group and the Government will develop; (c) how he expects the operations of this group to impinge on the work of the Industrial Development Authority and of Fóir Teoranta; and (d) whether it is officially or unofficially accepted that the operations of this group will generate expectations among its members in regard to the shaping of Government policy on building development or on any other matter.

I am aware of reports of an informal association of businessmen as referred to in the first part of the question. No approach has been made by such a group to me or to my Department.

I understand, however, that the Industrial Development Authority have been approached by some of the businessmen in question and the authority were informed of the group's preliminary intention to establish a fund for investment in Irish enterprise, particularly small enterprises.

Since the group do not appear to have yet clarified their idea I am not in a position to answer the remaining parts of the question.

I accept what the Minister says in regard to the fact that those ideas have not yet been formulated. Could he assure the House that the answer at least to section (d) of my question will be no, that no such expectations will be generated or entertained officially or unofficially among the members of the group?

I have said that the group's activities are at a preliminary stage. I refer the Deputy to the final paragraph of my reply where I said that they do not yet appear to have clarified their idea and I am not in a position to answer the remaining parts of the question.

I accept that. I am trying to get from the Minister a categorical assurance that there is no intention whatsoever, or reservation of mind as good as an intention, of allowing expectations to arise among these businessmen in regard to a possible capacity to influence Government or Department policy through their operations.

I could not be held responsible for what the expectations of any individual in the country are. The Government cannot be held responsible for expectations. We have not given any indication to anybody of any ground for those expectations.

If the Government are in contact with a group of businessmen who have those fairly grandiose projects, surely it is only fair to the businessmen to say now that, no matter what they propose or what they do, the Government and the Department will not be influenced by them in regard to the formation of their policy, and only fair to them not to allow them to form expectations about being able to influence policy?

5.

asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy when the Industrial Development Authority first evolved and applied the concept of the industrial cluster.

The first such project, a cluster of five factory units, was approved by the Industrial Development Authority on 24 January 1973 for location in Sligo. Construction of this pilot project commenced in July 1974 and was completed in May 1975.

Is the Minister of State aware that the absent Minister in a speech delivered on 8 May last to the Limerick Shannon Rotary Club claimed as an initiative of his own the inauguration of those industrial clusters, apart from a couple of other things which are not his either?

I am not aware of what the Minister said on the occasion referred to by Deputy Kelly but I would mention that on 24 January 1973, the Minister, Deputy O'Malley, was a member of the Government when the decision was made to set up those clusters.

The Minister will force me to ask the Chair for leave to quote the Minister's address. He specifically claimed on 8 May that he had taken a number of initiatives, including this cluster programme, and including also provisions which were in the Industrial Development Bill promoted by the last Government which he revived in this Dáil.

The last Government did not make the decision. It was taken by the previous Government.

It is what is called a small little mind.