asked the Minister for the Environment the number of house completions, both local authority and private, in 1977; the estimated number of such completions in 1978; and on the basis of present trends, if the rate of both private and local authority house completions will improve next year; and the estimated number of such completions in 1979.

The number of new houses completed in 1977 was 24,548, of which 6,333 were local authority dwellings and 18,215 were non-local authority dwellings. It is estimated that new house completions in 1978 may exceed 26,000 and that local authority completions may be of the same order as in 1977. The White Paper on National Development 1977-1980, published in January 1978, indicated that on the basis of assessments of housing needs, the Government would ensure that completions would be maintained at levels between 21,000 and 27,000 a year up to 1980 to meet ongoing demand and make inroads into the backlog of unfit or overcrowded dwellings. Completions in 1979 will be within this range, but it is not possible at this stage to give a more precise estimate of completions in advance of the finalisation on next year's budget.

May I ask the Minister if in his reply he said these figures may be of the same order as in 1977? I did not quite catch the wording of the reply. Did the Minister use the words "may be" or "would be"? How positive is the Minister of the figures which he gave?

Every figure which I gave is correct.

Would the Minister just repeat the wording which occurs before the figures?

I will give the reply again. The number of new houses completed in 1977 was 24,548, of which 6,333 were local authority dwellings and 18,215 were non-local authority dwellings. It is estimated that new house completions in 1978 may exceed 26,000 and that local authority completions may be of the same order as in 1977.

That is fine. Has the Minister any evidence to indicate, in regard to the rate of completion of local authority houses—which figure he quotes there in a rather nebulous way—that there has been a decline in the number of completions in local authority houses? Is he aware that there is evidence to indicate that the number of local authority completions will be below 6,000 this year? It will be in the order of 5,800.

It is difficult to say exactly at this moment what the total completions will be before the end of December. The Deputy will appreciate that local authorities ran into many difficulties this year in carrying out their programmes. There was an non-availability of materials at certain times, adverse weather conditions prevailed and we had the engineering dispute which also had an adverse effect on the local authority house programme.

The Minister has a very pessimistic attitude in relation to the weather and some other factors which do not appear to have changed very much over the last few years. Am I right in interpreting from his general tone of pessimism that he accepts the implication of my question which is that local authority completion this year will be lower than they have been for some years.

No, I would not accept that at the moment.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Does the Minister not agree that the allocation for local authority housing last year was increased by 9 per cent and that the cost of building houses increased by 33 per cent? Is it any wonder that there is a falling off in the number of houses built?

The position is that the local authorities sought from the Government last year £100 million to carry out their programme. They were authorised to spend £88 million approximately but we must bear in mind the fact that when the local authorities made their applications for funds early in the year they took into account all the schemes which they assumed could possibly be completed by the end of 1978 without having due regard to the need and without having a proper survey carried out as to the real needs in various areas.

(Cavan-Monaghan): The simple question I asked the Minister is does he agree that according to the report out recently the amount of allocation for local authority houses this year was increased by 9 per cent, that the cost of building materials went up in the same period to 10 per cent and that the cost of building houses within the same period went up by 33? per cent? Does it not follow therefore that there must be a big falling off in the number of houses built?

That is not necessarily so, particularly in cases of local authorities who have land banks and who purchased sites a number of years ago and had those sites in hands as at 1 January 1978.

Is it a fact that the allocation for local authority housing this year is, at 10.5 per cent of the total capital expenditure, the lowest it has been for four years? Is it not the case that the Minister for the Environment made a statement last night implying that there would be cutbacks in the Dublin area and that clearly flies in the face of the assurances the Minister gave us a few moments ago? The statement of the Minister for the Environment last night was to a construction function and he indicated that the alleged priority which Dublin had up to recently is about to be eliminated and that there will be cutbacks.

We cannot say exactly how many houses will be completed this year until after 31 December.

This is an argument. It is not a matter thrown up for elucidation of material supplied in questions. The Chair, even at the risk of being accused of being partisan, will not permit it.

I would like to draw the attention of the Minister to the fact that the last part of the question asks for the estimated number of such completions in 1979 and the Minister's statement last night appears to indicate that the completions of local authority dwellings in Dublin will be less in 1979 than they would otherwise have been. That is the reason for the question.

I have given the information.

I am calling the next question. The Deputy is giving information. He did not seek it.