asked the Minister for Defence if, in view of the widespread disquiet at present regarding Defence Forces' accommodation as evidenced by an RTE television programme and the health report presented to Dublin Corporation, he will make public the report of the board of officers set up by the Quartermaster-General in September 1980 which was referred to in the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 26 on 8 April 1981.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 and 15 together.

The provision of housing is primarily a matter for the local authorities and married soldiers have an equal claim on such housing with other members of the community in the same category. The policy of my Department is to supplement the efforts of local authorities where soldiers' housing needs are greatest. Since 1954, 334 new married quarters have been provided at various locations throughout the country, including 92 in Dublin city.

It is the intention that all unsuitable married quarters will be replaced by modern housing. Work is now nearing completion on the first phase of the programme for the replacement of the married quarters at Cathal Brugha Barracks. This phase comprises 12 dwellings. The planning of further new quarters at the barracks and at the Curragh Camp and Collins Barracks, Cork, is being undertaken. The report referred to by the Deputy will be taken into account when plans for the building of further new married quarters are being considered. It is not intended to publish it.

It will continue to be the policy to encourage members of the Permanent Defence Force to set up co-operative schemes for the building of houses.

Arising from the reply given by the Minister to a previous question, does he stand over his suggestion that the wives of members of the Defence Forces may contact Deputies? In view of the fact that the health report of Dublin Corporation has resulted in some of the accommodation being declared unfit for human habitation, will he now take his responsibility seriously? The fact is that some of the accommodation is not fit for the lowliest animals to live in, but the Minister expects members of the Defence Forces to live in them. I have asked Dublin Corporation for details on the Minister's behalf and I am asking the Minister now if he will set up or arrange to have set up a housing co-operative, and if he will see to it that the persons involved will be met by him or some senior officer in his Department to discuss their grievances.

There was a grey area in regard to the legality of members of the Defence Forces approaching their elected representatives, and to get over that difficulty many of them got their wives to make representations. That grey area will now be clarified, I hope, as a result of a definitive statement to be issued. I agree that the standard of married quarters in some cases is very bad. The quarters in Griffith Square have been vacated, they are now closed, and we have had a certain amount of co-operation from Dublin Corporation with regard to rehousing. Co-operatives have been particularly successful in Westmeath and Longford and it is something which the Quartermaster-General will help to expand.