asked the Minister for the Environment the number of people who have availed of the £1,000 grant for first-time purchasers of houses.

: A total of 12,696 applications for the £1,000 grant have been received in the Department up to 31 May 1978 and of these, 8,161 have been approved. 2,641 grants have been paid in the same period.

: Has the Minister any intention of increasing the grant in view of the escalation in the price of houses?

: At the time the £1,000 grant was made available it was said it would be reviewed from time to time.

: How soon will this review take place in view of the rapid increase in the price of houses?

: That I am not prepared to say, considering the first review took place the day after I became Minister. We are not given to long delays.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Since the date of the introduction of this grant does the Minister appreciate the cost of building houses has gone up by at least £2,500, and probably much more, and that the grant has been completely eroded, and will the Minister review it now having regard to the realities of the costs?

: As I said last July, the matter will be kept under review.

: That was 12 months ago.

: The grant is still popular and I would like to point out that 12,696 applications were received in nine months and the total number of grants in the first six months of 1977 was 2,040.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Would the Minister agree it is popular in the sense that anything is better than nothing? What does he mean by reviewing it and when does he propose to review it?

: I mean exactly what I said. It will be kept under review. I am not prepared to say when. Remember, there was no change in the grant for four years prior to my becoming Minister.

: But the price of a house did not go up by £4,000 as it has done in the last four months.

: The price went up by 114 per cent in four years.

(Cavan-Monaghan): The £1,000 grant is like last year's snow.

: The Minister says he will keep it under review. He could do that for the next seven years.

: He will not be there for the next seven years.

: When will it come under review?

: Is it not misleading for the Minister to say, as he did in his reply, that the number of grants paid out were 12,000 while the figures he gave earlier were 2,600? He compared the figures for the previous Administration in the previous year with those of the current year and the implication was he gave out 12,000 grants.

: I did not give that impression. The number of applications was 12,696. I gave the separate totals. I gave three figures—applications, approvals and grants.

: The Minister is making capital out of the fact that the scheme is so popular there were 12,000 odd applications.

: That is a statement, not a question.