asked the Minister for the Public Service the number of claims now pending throughout the public service; the grades concerned; and the stage of negotiations reached in respect of each claim.

It is not possible, without detailed examination by Departments, to say what claims are pending or in course of negotiation at any particular time.

The Minister must have an idea of the approximate number.

The difficulty in outlining particulars——

We are not tying the Minister down to the exact figure.

While I would have fairly exact details regarding claims which are current, at any one time there are claims which might have been entered some time ago, perhaps even a year ago or longer, which for one reason or another are not being pursued by one party or the other. It is very difficult to define whether they should be regarded as current claims. I was not trying to be unhelpful in my reply. Quite a number of claims are encompassed by the conciliation and arbitration procedure, one of the basic tenets of which is that, once entered into discussions are agreed as being confidential between each side. My difficulty is that, were I to begin to discuss them, essentially I would be in breach of the provisions of the scheme.

I am asking about the number of claims which have gone there. I do not want to know who they are from.

The total number of claims?

Yes.

There are certain claims which——

Recently, in the past six months,

I have not got the information broken down in that form. When I began to examine it, my difficulty was that we encountered quite a number of claims which were entered over a period extending much further back than six months. It was difficult to assess whether they could still be regarded by either of the parties involved as current claims. They were not being pursued actively for one reason or another. For that reason we did not compile details of claims based on periods back over six, 12 or 18 months. If the Deputy is particularly interested in the number of claims lodged through the conciliation and arbitration procedure in the past six months, I will be quite happy to get that number for him. I think it is readily ascertainable and I will be happy to send that information to him.