asked the Minister for the Environment if his attention has been drawn to the view of the construction industry regarding the effects which the reduction of 10 per cent this year in mortgage interest relief for tax purposes has had on house sales; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

The question of tax relief on mortgage interest is a matter for the Minister for Finance.

I am aware of views expressed by representatives of the construction industry on this measure, but I am not aware of any particular statement about the effect it has had on house sales. However, I would point out that the level of house sales is affected by a wide range of influences including demographic factors, changes in income levels, trends in house prices, mortgage interest rates and taxation.

It would be very difficult to attribute any changes which have occurred in the level of house sales to any one particular factor. The cut in mortgage tax relief was an integral part of the 1987 budget and it may be said that any negative effect on house sales has been more than offset by that Budget's positive impact on mortgage interest rates.

Perhaps, then, the Minister could explain how that offset which he suggests ought to have occurred has resulted in the registered new house starts as recorded by his Department falling in the period from April to October of this year as compared with a figure for the equivalent period for last year, from 4,242 to 3,201, a fall of 25 per cent since the beginning of April?

I am not going to argue the figures with the Deputy——

Because they are correct.

——except to say that many things impinge on the reasons for that. There has been a shift in the population.

Across the Atlantic.

Yes, some of them, and other locations, too. Nobody will deny that the emigration figures are there or that they concern a certain age group more particularly than any other group. It does lead to less demand for certain types of construction and there seems to be a bigger take-up on secondhand houses in recent times. However, what we are talking about in this question is the mortgage interest relief and, as the Deputies will know, that is the responsibility of the Minister for Finance. It appears that new and existing houses sold with mortgage loans fell to about 25,000 this year. The figure was 27,632 in 1986, so there certainly has been a drop.

Is the Minister aware that, whatever the responsibilities of the Minister for Finance may be, he acts as a member of the collective Government, but that the individual member of the Government who has specific responsibility for the construction industry is the Minister for the Environment?

Hear, hear.

The Irish Home Builders' Association in their submission to Government, which presumbly the Minister has received, have attributed the reasons for the fall in sales this year as being withdrawal of the £5,000 grant and of the £2,250 grant and the reduction in mortgage interest relief, which they describe as having compounded the difficulties of the private housing sector. Is the Minister further aware that in the same submission, in relation to mortgage interest relief specifically, the association say that this was "a most damaging policy measure which has undermined the confidence of both the builder and the prospective purchaser"?

Quotations at Question Time are not in order.

I am asking the Minister to confirm that that has been the case.

The Deputy has been quoting.

The Minister is aware of everything, but I did not hear the Deputy congratulating the Minister for the Environment on the 2.75 per cent drop in the standard rate of mortgage repayment.

Did the Minister do that? Is he responsible for that?

All on his little own. He got it back to the same as it had been last year.

Could he turn his attention to the economy?

Order, please, Deputies.

If he managed that on his own, he should get a standing ovation.

And he is going to pay them off tomorrow in his announcement.

If this persists, I am going to go on to the next question.

The Minister wants to be credited when the rate goes down but when the rate goes up——

If it goes up, it is something else.

You will notice, a Cheann Comhairle, that when the interest rate drops and affects positively what mortgage holders have to pay back, it is the building societies that make the announcement, not like the practice of my predecessors who liked to get in the day before as if they had arranged it — but Deputy Quinn would not do that. There is innocence personified on the far side of the House.

Would the Minister agree that it is the Government's objective to abolish mortgage interest relief against income tax thereby causing greater hardship to mortgage payers and further depressing the construction industry and that we can expect a further decrease next year in the rate which is available?

The Minister does not agree with that suggestion. It is a matter for the Government at budget time to decide what taxation levels will apply in the economy.

It is very clear what the Government want to do.

A 25 per cent drop in the past six months.

That has been according to a newspaper, but it has been challenged by the experts.

I call Question No. 18.

It is according to the Government's figures, from the Department of the Environment.

Please, Deputy. Question No. 18 has been called.