asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason the report from his Department for 1981 only appeared in 1984 and the reason the report was still unable to provides figures for the number of persons in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance.

The report referred to in the Deputy's question covers not alone the year 1981 but also 1982. Preparation of the report commenced, therefore, early in 1983 and arrangements for printing were made with the Stationery Office in accordance with normal procedure. Material for printing was supplied in May 1983 but final production of the report took longer than normal because of difficulty in establishing some figures and because of an industrial dispute which delayed the despatch of printing paper for the report from the Stationery Office to the printers. The report finally became available at the beginning of February 1984.

Figures for the number of persons in receipt of supplementary welfare allowances are provided in table 35 of the report. The figures are, however, estimated because final figures were not available from some health boards at the time of printing and, in the case of one health board, because some records were destroyed by fire.

The Minister has failed to explain why the 1981 report did not appear. It is now included in the 1982 report. He also failed to explain why figures were prepared up to May 1983 and why there was a long delay in printing. Could the figures not have been updated by the time printing took place at the end of 1983 to ensure that at least figures for 1981 were accurate and complete? Can the Minister now tell us when we will have the accurate and complete figures for 1981 and 1982?

I have explained the reason for the delay in the report. Those for 1981 and 1982 were compiled together——

Why?

I have no information with regard to that matter. Apparently, it had been the practice of the Department to issue two reports covering a number of years, a three to five-year period was covered, but the last two reports each covered a two-year period. That applies to the reports from 1979 and 1980 and 1981 and 1982. The two-year report is, therefore, an improvement on what had been the case for a number of years.

Is the Minister satisfied with the operation of the Department in the collection of statistics and isuing of reports? Will he ensure that, from now on, we will have yearly accurate reports from the Department?

Every effort will be made to improve the situation in so far as it is possible to do so but reports which are dependent on information coming from a number of sources and areas, especially outside Dublin, are always difficult to obtain. However, every effort will be made to see that improvements will be carried out in having reports available as it is in everyone's interests that the most up-to-date statistics and information are available.

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