asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism if he intends to provide a permanent, independent office for the Director of Consumer Affairs; and if so, the action he is taking in this regard.

My Department have for some considerable time been pressing the Office of Public Works to provide extra office accommodation, not only for the Director of Consumer Affairs but to cater for the overall needs of the Department.

The director and his staff are at present accommodated within the premises provided for my Department in the Setanta Centre but it is hoped to move them shortly to premises at Hume Street which have recently been made available by the Office of Public Works.

Would the Minister not agree that it is entirely unsatisfactory having a Director of Consumer Affairs located in his Department, in quite an inaccessible place, with telephone calls and everything else having to be transmitted through his Department? When does the Minister anticipate the director will have an independent office, completely detached from his Department, as it is supposed to be?

I do not accept that because the director is located in my Department he is, therefore, unsuitably located. I am not in the business of providing accommodation. I am in dire need of it for large sections of my Department and cannot get it. The building which I now occupy was designed for one Minister and one Department. There are now three Ministers, three Departments and two Ministers of State operating out of it.

The Board of Works inform me that they will be able to accommodate the Director of Consumer Affairs in a house at No. 13 Hume Street shortly.

The rent had better be cheap.

The old Fine Gael office.

Oh, that would be a very unsuitable location.

10.