asked the Minister for Labour if he will give the results of the inquiry held into the reporting in the media of the Labour Estimate documents for 1986; and the action he proposes to take on the matter.

I received a copy of the report of this inquiry on 29 October 1985. In its conclusions, the report does not provide any evidence to indicate that the information was leaked by anyone in the Department of Labour.

I had already taken steps to have the staff in the Department reminded of the requirements in relation to official secrecy.

Does the Minister accept that the document was obviously leaked from a Government Department? I am sure the Minister is aware how memos are guarded within the Departments and, therefore, am I to understand that one of the Minister's colleagues mislaid the document which led to an accurate report of the Labour Estimate for 1986 being furnished?

I did not hear what the Deputy said.

The Minister said that nobody in his Department leaked the document. I presume he accepts that the document must have been leaked by his Government colleagues as documents of this kind are never left lying around. This was a direct transcript of the Government document.

All I can do is to repeat what I have said and for the Deputy to deduce any conclusion from that would be very misleading to the House. The report which I received on 29 October concluded that there was no evidence of any kind to indicate that the information was leaked by anyone in the Department of Labour.