asked the Minister for Energy the present position regarding Ballingarry Mines, County Tipperary; and his intentions in regard to leasing them.

An application for mining and prospecting facilities in the Slieveardagh Coalfield is under active consideration by my Department at present. I hope that discussions which are proceeding on certain aspects of the proposed operation will be completed in the near future.

I thank the Minister for his tremendous action on this because in the past this was totally neglected for four years by the previous Coalition Government.

Well done, Deputy.

There was total inaction under the Coalition, under a socialist Minister. What are the job prospects and when it is hoped the operation will start?

I hope the operation will be underway within a couple of months. As far as the job numbers are concerned, that is a matter for the operator. The figure is not available to me but the Deputy can be assured that everything that can be done to speed up the commencement of operations is being done by me and the Department, because we recognise the unemployment problem in the Ballingarry area and we see that Ballingarry mines is a way to combat that problem. The Deputy can be assured that I am doing everything I can to get this under way as soon as possible.

Will the Minister outline what difficulties he had to overcome to get this together and how he went about it?

With a view to clearing the road for resumption of operations, the State mining lease over Ballingarry coalfield, which was formerly held by the receiver of Flare Resources, was made forfeit by me on 6 September last, leaving me free to issue new mining facilities. I have had a number of companies come forward after that. One company has now withdrawn and another company are just concluding their arrangements for a start up on one portion of the Ballingarry mines area. I hope that operations will commence before the summer. The Deputy will be well aware from his vast knowledge of the area of the complications of land ownership and so on in that area. I hope that as a result of the forfeiture of the previous mining lease we will now be ready to commence operations before the summer.

Which areas will be worked in the mine?

It is the intention that one-half will be under a mining lease, and there will be prospecting facilities for surrounding areas. That is roughly the situation but the Deputy would be more familiar with the areas.