With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 167 and 169 together.
My Department have neither placed, nor have they any power to place, an embargo on members of the staff seeking employment elsewhere. The questions as to the qualifications required for posts of engineer in the Electricity Supply Board and whether staff of my Department who applied for posts advertised in November 1978 by the ESB will be called for interview are matters for the Electricity Supply Board.
The number of engineers from my Department who transferred to the Electricity Supply Board over the past five years was, so far as is known, nine; as my Department has some 260 engineers serving currently, this number can hardly be considered a large-scale transfer. As regards an explanation, presumably the engineers concerned considered the other employment more attractive.