(Limerick East): In view of the reports in this morning's papers of Irish Life's intention to get involved in a major way in the house mortgage business, could the Minister comment on the necessity to bring forward legislation which he already promised to allow building societies to get involved in banking facilities so that all the financial institutions can play on a level pitch?

As the Taoiseach said in reply to the Deputy yesterday morning in relation to this question, it was our intention to have legislation on the building societies and the Central Bank Currency Acts amended in this session but that has not proved possible. The matter is at present with the parliamentary draftsman. The work is proceeding and we hope, in the not too distant future, to publish that legislation.

(Limerick East): Does the Minister appreciate that approximately 45 per cent of building societies' traditional mortgage business is now being taken over by the banks? Now that Irish Life intend taking half of what is left, does he not appreciate the difficulties about to be faced by the building societies and the urgency of bringing in this legislation at the earliest possible opportunity in the next session?

I do not know whether the figure quoted by the Deputy is correct but we have said for the past number of months that we were urgently dealing with the matter of this legislation and we are still doing so. In the statement from Irish Life they said they may be considering a similar type company for the Irish market in the future but what they have announced yesterday is their involvement in the UK mortgage finance market.