asked the Minister for Labour if he will give details of the number of man-days lost through disputes in 1985 under the various categories.

The Central Statistics Office is the official source of statistics relating to industrial disputes but official and finalised figures are not yet available from that office in respect of 1985.

The information compiled by my Department in relation to disputes covers such matters as the number of strikes and days lost through official and unofficial disputes and the number of strikes and days lost in the public and private sector. These figures are estimates only.

My Department estimate that in 1985, 437,000 days were lost through industrial disputes. Of the days lost 394,000 (90 per cent) were due to official industrial action and 43,000 (10 per cent) were due to action classified as unofficial. Of the 437,000, 297,000 days (68 per cent) were lost in the public sector and 140,000 (32 per cent) in the private sector.

The one day public service stoppage and the teachers' national and regional disputes accounted for 211,000 of the days lost or approximately 48 per cent of all days lost in 1985.

As a trade union official, may I offer my congratulations to the Minister for the manner in which he has always made himself available and for the co-operation given to my trade union colleagues? Would he agree that part of the problem in relation to the operation of the Labour Court may be due to the fact that the conciliation service is not as strong as it used to be in resolving disputes before they actually get to the Labour Court and therefore a confrontation?

There is a later question along those lines on the Order Paper.

I take this opportunity to pay public tribute to the extraordinary work that has been done by the Labour Court and by the conciliation service in particular. If one excludes the stoppage which arose from the public service and teachers' national and regional disputes, one will see that there has been an enormous decrease in the figures for last year compared with the year before. That does not come about by accident. One of the contributory factors to the reduced number of disputes and man-days lost was undoubtedly the work of the Labour Court.

As regards providing additional resources to the conciliation service, I have proposals which are at present before the social partners involving restructuring the structures which govern industrial relations — arbitration, conciliation and adjudication. It is within that framework that we can strengthen what is clearly a very positive arm of the Labour Court.

Does the Minister have the figure of man-days lost for the public service in 1984?

I can give the Deputy the total official and unofficial figures from 1982 to 1985. For the public sector the number of man-days lost was 108,000, or 30 per cent, as against 297,000 or 68 per cent in 1985.

The figure has more than doubled?

Yes.