asked the Minister for Labour the number of redundancies which have occurred in the clothing, textile and footwear industries during the past year.

The number of redundancies notified to my Department as qualified under the Redundancy Payments Acts in the 12 months ended 30 September 1978—the latest 12 months period for which figures are available —was (a) 1,557 in the textile industries and (b) 629 in the clothing and footwear industries. Separate figures are not compiled for the footwear industry alone.