asked the Minister for the Environment if he will state in respect of himself and any Minister of State in his Department for the period 1 January 1980 to date: (i) whether any circulars on matters unconnected with his responsibilities have been sent on his behalf by post by officials of his Department to groups of his constituents, (ii) the number of different circulars involved and (iii) the estimated number of items mailed.

No such circulars have been sent out by me or by the Ministers of State at my Department. Correspondence in our capacity as Dáil Deputies is issued as appropriate and, as the Deputy will be aware, this is in accordance with well-established, long-standing practice.

Will the Minister say whether his Department circularised correspondence in relation to the provision of a telephone exchange in his constituency?

Correspondence in my capacity as a Dail Deputy is issued as appropriate. I like to keep my constituents informed of what is going on.

Will the Minister indicate if that correspondence is correspondence initiated by him, unsolicited by his constituents who may not even be his supporters, or is it a response by him and his Departmental officials to letters received in the Department?

Unlike what the Deputy is suggesting would be his approach to his constituents, I do not consider constituents as supporters or not. They are all constituents from the day I am elected and I work for them all irrespective of whether or not they are supporters.

Shades of his father.

Will the Minister answer the question? Correspondence from a Minister may take the form of a reply to a letter received from a constituent. Will the Minister say whether in this instance the correspondence to which he has referred concerns correspondence of an unsolicited nature sent out to constituents?

I am in constant contact with my constituents on various issues that concern them. There were a number of extensions to the phone system in my constituency recently and I have notified a number of my constituents about the extension and the improvements that are planned for the phone system.

In some cases it was in response to individual inquiries and in other cases it was as general information.

I am one of the fellows getting these letters.

Question No.

I do not mind getting them because at least it confirms that what I have been working for for years is coming to fruition. In relation to the Garretstown sewerage scheme, which caters for about 200 houses in the quarter of a mile long village, will the Minister say within what radius of the village he notified people that there was to be a sewerage scheme provided for them?

The difference is that——

Would it be within a five mile radius?

The difference between the Deputy and myself is that when the Deputy's party were in Government they sat on this sanction for this scheme for so long that it waited until we were in power. It gives me great pleasure, as Minister for the Environment, to notify people who would be interested with regard to the sewerage scheme.

Although they were five miles away from a potential flush?

Will the Minister please reply to Question No. 21?

May the House now take it that the Minister is wasting his time as Minister for the Environment? When he should be doing his job he is drafting letters to constituents.