asked the Minister for Labour the number of man days lost in Ireland through industrial disputes in the first quarter of 1978 and 1979 and if he will make a statement on the matter.

11.

asked the Minister for Labour if provisional estimates showing the number of man days lost through strikes in the first quarter of 1979 are available and if so, if he will give details.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together.

The Central Statistics Office is the official source of statistics relating to industrial disputes and statistics are not yet available from that office concerning industrial disputes during 1978 and 1979.

My Department estimate that the number of man days lost in the first quarter of 1978 was 107,553. The estimate for the first quarter of 1979 is 469,000, of which 331,000 were accounted for by the strike in the post office and 138,000 by other disputes.

Is the Minister saying that this year's figures are perhaps as much as five times what they were last year? He confirmed that almost one million man days have been lost because of the postal strike. In view of that, would he give a projection for the rest of the year?

I do not have a projection for the rest of this year but I believe that at the rate the Deputy has peddled discontent in this House my estimate and his would be entirely different.

The Minister peddled discontent in the country.

I am not so sure of that either.