asked the Minister for the Environment the reason for the delay in the payment of a new house grant to a person (details supplied) in County Cork.

A new house grant of £325 was paid to the person named on 9 March 1981. His claim for the higher rate of grant cannot be determined until a statement of his income for the relevant year, certified by the local authority, is received. The delay in this case was due to the fact that the original application was mislaid in the Department.

Is the Minister now accepting that files in relation to housing grant applications can be mislaid in his Department?

I admit that there can be human errors but I am not responsible for them.

There certainly have been a number of human errors in that Department. In view of the fact that the Minister is making that admission, will he agree to re-examine the situation in relation to the claims made by a number of people that they lodged applications in the Department before the closing date of the grant scheme and where the Minister now says there is no record and that payment of the grants cannot be entertained?

I answered a question on that some months ago and stated that there were at least 150 of these claims.

46.