In his remarks the Minister mentioned the winding down of the Land Commission staff. Could he give some indication of the numbers of staff involved and the present position?

That appears to be a separate question.

The Minister mentioned it in passing. Would he indicate what is the position in regard to the administration of the new land tax and in particular the assessment of adjusted acres throughout the country, which we have been led to believe would be undertaken by the Land Commission?

That is going into another field, literally and metaphorically.

It is a very important matter.

This is for a different Minister.

Has the Minister any plans to recruit new staff to administer the land tax, or does he intend to avail of the staff in the Land Commission for this purpose?

I take it the Deputy is referring to the proposed farm tax.

No, the land tax.

In the Chair's opinion it is not necessary to quibble about it because it clearly does not arise on this question.

The Minister is trying to be smart.

If the Deputy is referring to the farm tax, the intention is that a large number of the qualified personnel in the Land Commission would be utilised for this purpose, together with personnel from certain other areas. The decision is very close to finality and will be announced within the next week or two. It would be reasonable for the House to take it that the core of the staff to be utilised in carrying out assessments for adjusted acreage purposes would be drawn from the Land Commission.

The Minister is talking about winding down the staff but what proportion of that staff will be retained?

The intention is to abolish the Land Commission by 1986 and the staff will be wound down towards that objective. The staff who might be redeployed to the farm tax adjusted acreage assessments would come from the qualified inspectorate of the Land Commission. I am speaking from memory, but I think that inspectorate totals 150 officers from a total staff complement of between 500 and 600. The Deputy will appreciate that we are straying outside the remit of the question.

I must discourage a discussion on the Land Commission.

It was a very useful exchange of information and the purpose of Question Time is to get this information for the benefit of the public.

The Chair does not dispute that but——

Good.

Question Time should not be used to wander down every avenue and country road.

And field.

I am always anxious to expand on Deputy Haughey's knowledge.