asked the Minister for the Environment if he is in a position to make a decision on the application to establish a town commission in Leixlip, County Kildare.

16.

asked the Minister for the Environment if he has received a formal application for the conferring of town commissioner status upon the town of Leixlip, County Kildare and, if so, when such an application was made, if he has satisfied himself with same and when he proposes to make an order confirming his approval of that application.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 15 and 16 together.

Two applications have been made in the past two years by a number of residents of the Leixlip area to have Leixlip constituted as a town with town commissioners. The function of the Minister for the Environment in relation to such applications is to decide on the suitability of the town boundaries proposed and, if satisfied, to order the proposal to be adjudicated locally.

I conveyed a decision on the first of these applications in May 1978, judging the boundaries submitted in that application to be unsuitable. A further application was made in November 1978 and I hope to decide on it shortly.

I do not want to try to get the Minister to anticipate a decision, but could I ask him in a general way whether he is sympathetic to this application made by a community of over 7,000 people?

I would not like to answer that question at this stage, but there is a vast difference between the two applications. In the first application, which was refused, 2,600 acres were involved. This application is limited to 650 acres, so it would seem at least more realistic. With regard to saying that I am sympathetic or otherwise, the Deputy will realise that he should not expect me to say yes or no to that.

Perhaps it is not entirely fair, but could I ask the Minister at least to acknowledge here in the Dáil that the present population in the built-up Leixlip area exceeds greatly the population of several other Irish towns which have urban district councils, let alone town commissioners?

Yes, it does.

And that it exceeds somewhat the population of towns which have UDCs?

Yes.

While the question relates to one area, has the Minister any information on the number of such similar applications that are in from other areas?

That is a separate question.

I appreciate that.

There are two further applications at the moment, one from Greystones and one from Shannon Town.

As an afterthought, could the Minister put a rough date on the time by which he hopes to have this matter decided? Roughly, are we talking about a couple of weeks or months, or how does the Minister see it?

This would be decided in a very short time as far as I am aware. The Deputy asks for a rough date. I say in the fairly near future.

Would it still bear the date 1979?

I cannot say that at this stage.

What is the delay?

I cannot give that undertaking.