asked the Minister for the Environment if, in view of the increasing demands on the water resources on which the Dublin area relies and the difficulty in meeting de-mand due to weather conditions and other long-term problems, he will instruct local authorities to provide showers instead of baths in any housing schemes planned by them.

I would have no objection in principle to a proposal by any local authority to provide showers instead of baths in a local authority housing scheme. Local authorities, as sanitary authorities, are in the best position to determine the most useful and practical means of conserving water, and I would consider it neither wise nor necessary to impose on them any particular methods of dealing with water shortages.