asked the Minister for Labour the action he proposes to take to ensure that the social employment scheme is available nationally.

The Social Employment Scheme has always been available nationally through voluntary bodies and public authorities. A regional quota system is in operation to ensure an equitable spread of the limited resources throughout the country.

Previous difficulties in relation to applications from local authorities appear now to have been overcome. Because of financial constraints, applications have to be deferred. I am reviewing the position to see if any action can be taken to ameliorate the situation.

Would the Minister agree that the standard that is applied varies very dramatically from local authority to local authority? Does he agree that projects approved without difficulty in some local authority areas may be quite incapable of getting off the ground in others? What steps does he propose to take to ensure equal access by the long-term unemployed across the country?

As I have said, a national quota system is in operation to ensure an equitable spread throughout the regions. In the new regional offices I am sure that attention will be paid by the new administration to help to alleviate any problems that may have arisen in that regard.

Has the Minister the figures for the numbers employed, the take-up by different local authorities? If he has, will he confirm that the figures for the largest local authority make very peculiar reading?

It seems it was estimated that there would be 12,400 people on the scheme. In fact, the scheme was overrecruited. I have not a breakdown of figures from region to region.

Does the Minister know how many people have been taken on by Dublin Corporation since the commencement of the scheme?

I do not have information on the various areas, but have an overall figure. The social employment scheme has a budget of £43.410 million, including and ESF contribution of £39.130 million Exchequer funding. The amount provides for 9,600 people being accommodated at any one time.

Does the Minister know how many people were employed by Dublin Corporation?

I do not have that information.

These are rather specific questions.

The Deputy will have to put down a specific question. As the Deputy knows, there is a monitoring committee in operation which has representation from ICTU and other bodies. They monitor the situation. The problem in relation to local authorities appears to have been resolved satisfactorily in May of this year.