asked the Minister for Finance (a) the cost to the public of installing the double row of bayonet-shaped flagposts embedded in rough-cast concrete rhomboids in front of Leinster House; and (b) whether it is proposed that these should become permanent embellishments of the House.

(Clare): The cost of supplying, erecting and removing the flagpoles at the Kildare Street forecourt was £640.

The flagpoles have been removed.

Does that £640 include the cost of the poles, the concrete bases, their installation and removal?

(Clare): The cost of supplying, erecting and removing the flagpoles.

Does that include the time spent in lugging in these enormous concrete bases?

(Clare): It has to include the time factor.

I am almost finished and because it will be a long time before OPW are back again I should like to try to make some headway about the appearance of this House and the way it is maintained.

There was a Supplementary Estimate before the House this morning dealing with this.

There was, but I was not able to get in on it. Will the Minister give an assurance that never again will this building be disfigured by the tatty sight of these flagpoles, their ugly concrete bases and the crude primary colours of 20 flags flapping in the breeze for a couple of days in honour, I suppose, of foreign dignitaries? Was there any need or demand from these public dignitaries that their presence should be signalised here by this display before they arrived?

(Clare): The Leinster House authorities felt that the Council of Europe flags, and the national flags of the 21 members, should be flown.