asked the Minister for the Environment when a reconstruction grant will be paid to a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny as it has been approved by his Department for the past three years.

There is no record of the receipt in my Department of an application for a house improvement grant from the person named.

(Cavan-Monaghan): This is a similar occurrence, presumably in Kilkenny. So far there have been cases of no record of applications from Cavan, Monaghan, Galway and Kilkenny. Will not the Minister accept that something has gone wrong in his Department and that it is his business, as the man now in charge of it, to get the matter straightened out or to have an inquiry?

I want to emphasise that I am following procedure. When I left office in a temporary nature——

The Minister is back in a similar fashion.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Is the Minister suggesting he should have fixity of tenure?

Yesterday I stated that the same procedures I implemented in the Department were used by the Minister and the Ministers of State of the previous Government. They did not make any alterations. When I came back to the Department I asked them to give as much information as possible and to ensure that the correct information was given. I told the officials of my Department that if any Member of this House rings them they should tell him the position. That is the way I want things to be done.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Will not the Minister agree that in this case the unfortunate civil servants can do nothing? The files have disappeared, have been thrown out, burned or stolen. At any rate they are not there.

Is the Deputy alleging that the civil service threw out the files or burned them? Yesterday the Minister was coming to this. Is he trying to rub the goose grease into them further? The Deputy will have to make up his mind. I have the fullest confidence in the officials of the Department doing the job that I and other Ministers ask them to do. I want to make it clear to the House that I would take a very serious view of any file that was mislaid or lost or of wrong information given. The Deputy has been in several Governments in the past and he should realise the situation. In the time I have been in the Department I have asked the officials to make sure that all files are accounted for and I have asked them to bring up-to-date all relevant information. I have nothing further to add.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Does not the Minister agree that the apparent best efforts of his predecessors and himself are not good enough and that they are not having any results? Does the Minister seriously believe that Deputy Fahey, Deputy Gibbons and myself are making bogus representations or putting in bogus applications? Does he think we have not enough sense to judge the people who come to us? I have genuine sympathy for the Minister but I have sympathy also for the people who are being deprived of £600 or £700. I want the Minister to do something about it.

I do not want the House to think that Deputy Fitzpatrick or anyone else was putting in bogus applications. Far from that. I am investigating the matter further to see if any further improvements can be made. There is a limit to how far I can go, but they know in the Department that I am very anxious to have administration in the grants section working smoothly and properly. That is my intention.

5.