asked the Minister for Agriculture the number of outstanding applications awaiting approval under the western drainage scheme on 31 December 1983; and the number of applications approved in 1983.

11.

asked the Minister for Agriculture the number of applications under the western drainage scheme not yet processed by his Department.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together. A total of 3,497 applications were approved in 1983. At 31 December 1983 the number of applications remaining unprocessed was approximately 8,500.

Would the Minister not agree that the biggest problem faced by Deputies during 1983 was the number of applicants coming to them due to the restrictive nature of the scheme where applications from 30 September 1981 were not considered.

Yes. The Deputy will appreciate that the number of applications has been absolutely massive and it is very difficult to cater for all of them within the scope of the scheme. We were allowed to utilise 100,000 hectares in the scheme originally and this was increased to 150,000 hectares. Even with that huge amount of land we still could not hope to cater for all of the applicants who want to get involved.

Would the Minister not agree that it is time to consider whether finance will be available in the future? Some people have been waiting for two years and there is no hope.

I appreciate that. It would take at least until the end of June 1984 to process and approve the remaining applications to complete the 150,000 hectare limit. It is a massive scheme.