asked the Minister for the Environment the number of applications in respect of reconstruction grants under the old scheme that have been refused by his Department for any reason; and if he is prepared to reconsider these cases in the knowledge that a substantial number of these refusals were not the fault of the applicant.

I am not in a position to give the information requested by the Deputy as my Department do not keep statistics relating to the number of grant applications refused or the reasons for such refusals. I am fully prepared to reconsider any case in which a grant has been refused in the light of representations made by or on behalf of the applicant. However, the Deputy will appreciate that grants cannot be paid in the case of applications which do not comply with the statutory requirements.

That means that any grants cannot be paid. Under the new scheme grants cannot be paid when any work has been undertaken. I refer the Minister to my previous supplementary to which the Minister replied that the advertisements did not appear in the local newspapers. Many people down the country do not read either Sunday or daily newspapers and as a result they could not possibly be informed of the closing date for the termination of the old scheme.

I do not know what the position in Mayo is but in my part of the country they all get at least one Sunday newspaper.

We get the Sunday newspapers on Wednesdays.

The Minister indicated in reply to Question No. 6 that he would give the number of outstanding applications.

On 30 June 1981, 20,000 cases were still outstanding. The Deputy should not get all worked up. On some of these applications work had never been started and therefore they would never mature for payment. More than 2,000 late requests for payments were made, and they may be out. Those 2,000 applications were made after the deadline on 30 June.

How many are outstanding?

Applications made after the deadline of 30 June in respect of which payments were not requested are outstanding. After 30 June 1981, 2,000 late requests for payments were made out of the 20,000.

Does the Minister accept that his Government have done 20,000 applicants out of reconstruction grants?

That is not true. If the Deputy had followed my reply he would have learned that 20,000 grants for which there had been applications before 30 June 1981 were not claimed. Then there were 2,000 requests for payments after the deadline. The Deputy has said I have wronged 20,000 people. The Department got requests from only 2,000 applicants after the deadline and a number of these applicants may not have commenced work at all.

The Minister is a Member of the party who abolished these grants at that time, and will he agree now that that was a grave blunder and a disastrous mistake?

I accept no such thing. Perhaps I could ask the Deputy a couple of interesting questions.

Will the Minister accept there has been a lot of confusion in the Department about these applications? Is he aware that the Department have written to people stating that their applications have not been received in the Department? When people are prepared to give sworn affidavits to the effect that they posted applications in time and complied with the regulations, will he accept these affidavits and pay the grants?

If the Deputy has an application in mind, the Deputy knows me quite well and he knows he can come to me and I will deal with it very sympathetically if it complies with the statutory regulations.

In view of the Minister's reply, what is the position of an applicant who in 1977 was paid half of his reconstruction grant, who finished the other half of the work in 1978 and who between then and 1981 made five different applications for payment but has not been paid?

If the Deputy gives me particulars of the case I assure him I will have it processed quickly.

7.