asked the Minister for Finance the number of persons who were employed by the Revenue Commissioners for the purpose of operating and using computers in (i) 1985 (ii) 1986 (iii) 1987; and the grades such persons have in the Civil Service.

I propose with the permission of the Cheann Comahirle to circulate the information in the following table in the Official Report:

A Cheann Comhairle——

The reply is in the form of a tabular statement. Usually one awaits the submission of the tabular statement.

All I want to ask is whether the Minister is satisfied as to the number of people employed in the Office of the Revenue Commissioners. Is he satisfied he is overcoming the problem which was referred to in the newspapers recently to the effect that the Revenue Commissioners were in crisis because their computer staff had been very substantially poached by the private sector and they were not now in a position to recruit people to operate their computers?

That is because we will not pay them.

I do not accept either what the media or the Deputy has said. All I can say is that the matter is under continuous review. We always make sure that adequate resources are provided.