asked the Minister for the Environment the amount of the inflow of funds into building societies during January and February in 1979 and 1980.

As the reply is in the form of a tabular statement I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to have it circulated with the Official Report. Following is the information:

Note:

The above figures are received from the six major societies on a monthly basis for the purpose of monitoring the flow of funds to societies generally and are exclusive of interest credited to accounts.

I am surprised at the reply because I have only asked for two months. It is a reasonable request. It is not a long list of figures and it might reveal reasonable information.

That is why the Deputy is getting it in a tabular form.

The Chair has no option but to permit it.

I admit that. We are talking about January and February of 1979 and 1980. It is a very short reply. We are only talking about four figures.

I am prepared to give the information. In January 1979 gross receipts were £37,333,000; withdrawals, £13,474,000; nett receipts, £23,859,000. February 1979, gross receipts, £37,203,000; withdrawals, £15,565,000; net receipts, £21,638,000. January 1980, gross receipts, £41,317,000; withdrawals, £23,208,000; net receipts, £18,109,000. February 1980, gross receipts, £34,626,000; withdrawals, £27,192,000; nett receipts, £7,434,000.

Sin é an scéal.

Now I realise why we were getting a tabular reply. Has the Minister any proposals to offset the lack of inflow into the building societies and will he tell us what effect this will have on the house building industry?

If I could answer the first part of the supplementary first, it has not had any effect because they had reasonable reserves carried over from last year.

Is the Minister in a position to indicate to the House where exactly the outflow of £37 million has been reinvested?

The outflow is the money withdrawn. I imagine it has been in merchant banks who are paying a higher rate of interest. I am only giving an opinion here.

Would the Minister not blame inflation for the fact that people are now withdrawing their funds? Is it not the Government who are responsible for the withdrawal of the funds?

No. The Deputy should remember that the two particular months for which he has looked for information, were the months when the cash flow resulting from our joining the EMS was highest and it continued for the first two to three months of the year and then eased off. The deposits, therefore, were particularly high at that time in 1979.

(Cavan-Monaghan): That is nearly as hackneyed as the inclement weather.

It is a fact.

The figure for January 1980 is £23 million and for February 1980 it is £7 million, so the Minister's reason does not stand up.

In view of the trend in the reply the Minister gave, does he propose introducing any specific remedial measures to help the building societies to offset the flow of funds, which ultimately will have a detrimental effect on the availability of mortgages and on interest rates? Would he consider a subsidy?

The whole question is under examination at the moment.

Is the possibility of a mortgage subsidy under examination?

There are a lot of supplementaries across the House.

Does the consideration the Minister refers to include consideration of a possible subsidy to assist mortgage payments?

The whole question is under examination at the moment.

If the whole question is under examination I presume that is not excluded? Is it reasonable for the House to conclude that this consideration will include the possibility of such assistance?

It is entirely a matter for the Deputy to draw his own conclusions.

From the information available only to the Minister's Department can he say if the trend indicated by him for January and February of this year has been continued to March? If that is the case can he indicate what announcements he will be making later on this afternoon to reverse that trend?

The Deputy should not anticipate a debate which is to come up afterwards.

Is the Minister satisfied that the bulk of the £27 million has not left the country? Can he indicate to the House the amount of increase in interest rates being sought at present by the building societies?

The answer is no.

To which part of the supplementary is the answer no?

The last part.

Has no request been made to the Government for an increase in the building society interest rates?

Discussions have taken place.

It is a pity that the discussions did not take place with the associated banks before it was too late to do anything.