asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to a report (details supplied) indicating that the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Stardust disaster was launched by hosting a lunch for 12 persons in a Dublin hotel which cost £600; and, if so, if the cost was borne out of public or private funds.

The report in question was substantially inaccurate in most respects, and I would refer the Deputy to a subsequent press report on the 2 April, 1981(Irish Independent) arising out of a letter from the Tribunals Registrar to the press in the matter. A meal was provided on the occasion of the first working meeting of the tribunal with the assessors and the legal advisers appointed to assist it in its task, and the cost was met out of departmental funds.