asked the Minister of Works the number of tile makers who have been released from the Army, Navy and R.A.F. during the past 12 months.

During this period 244 skilled tile-makers have been released from the Armed Forces and 20 from the Civil Defence Services.

Is the Minister aware that a great number of these brickyards, which will be needed even more in the near future than they are at present, cannot come into operation until the key-men are released from the Services?

We are very well aware of it, and that is why we have been getting the skilled tile-makers out of the Forces.

Very few.

The number I mention—244—represents more than 10 per cent. of the total labour force now in that industry.