asked the Minister for the Environment the reason his Department delayed posting letters to Donegal housing grant applicants informing them that their grants were being refused particularly when the letters had been typed weeks before 6 November 1980 and in some cases typed for over six weeks, and were ready for posting in the normal way by the officials in his Department.

My Department did not, as implied in the Deputy's question, delay in any way the issue of letters, once they were ready for posting. Because of the large volume of correspondence in relation to housing grants, there has been in some isolated cases a longer than usual interval between the typing of those letters and their checking, signature and issue.

Can the Minister tell me how many letters were typed in the month of September, lay in the Minister's office during the month of October until the by-election in Donegal was over and then had the dates obliterated and new dates typed on them? What was the purpose in doing that?

At the moment I get in my office about 800 letters a week in regard to grants. I checked out in relation to Donegal to see how many were held up. There were only four letters held up, two of them were bad news and one was good news and bad news, a sewerage grant allowed and the other one was the approval of an improvement grant. Those were the only letters held up.

Is the Minister's check as accurate as mine? Constituents have come to me with letters and on the reverse side of them one can clearly see the month of September typed while on the front November is typed. The news was always bad. Was there any cynical reason why the Department of the Environment kept back telling people bad news until after the by-election?

No. I have done a check on that and I have told the Deputy the answer. I do not engage in anything like that. I will give the Deputy good news if he wants it.

I have always accepted the Minister to be an honest person but I find it hard to accept on this occasion.

I would not be a party to shady practices.

How many letters did the Minister find in his office which were actually held up?

The Deputy might not have heard me. There were four. Two had bad news and one had good and bad news, half of the grant was approved and in the other case it was the approval of a grant.

Questions Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 have gone for written reply.