I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 21 and the name of the Member in each case: (1) Deputy Broughan — the urgent need for the Minister to bring forward a comprehensive postal strategy in light of reports that up to 500 more post offices may be shut down with devastating effects on local urban and rural communities; and that the strategy will also address the unsatisfactory low wages and poor working conditions that many postmasters and postmistresses are experiencing as well as the increased attacks on post offices and the non-automation of nearly 400 post offices, especially in the context of the fast approaching full liberalisation of the postal sector in 2009; (2) Deputies Kelleher, Allen, Boyle, Lynch, Jim O'Keeffe, Coveney and Stanton — the Minister's plans for Cork Airport and its break-up from the Dublin Airport Authority and the financial implications that may ensue; (3) Deputy Timmins — to ask the Minister what assistance, if any, the HSE is currently giving to the Community First Responders scheme in counties Wicklow and Kildare; (4) Deputy McHugh — to discuss the threatened closure of Seamount College, Kinvara, County Galway; (5) Deputy Pat Breen — that the Minister for Transport intervenes in the current negotiations between the Dublin Airport Authority and Shannon Airport workers to effect a resolution following the latest failure to reach agreement and that as part of that process the Minister would commit to a date for implementing the economic and tourism development plan for the airport and region as part of that process; (6) Deputy Costello — the need for the Government to refer the European Parliament's report on extraordinary rendition to a parliamentary committee of inquiry as recommended by the European Parliament; (7) Deputy Connolly — to discuss the recent changes in the nursing homes subvention scheme; (8) Deputy Durkan — the reply to Parliamentary Question No. 219 of 13 December 2006; (9) Deputy Ferris — the unemployment situation in Tralee; (10) Deputy Moynihan-Cronin — the need to provide a maternity unit at Kerry General Hospital; and (11) Deputy Michael D. Higgins — the reasons that the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has failed to honour an award made to a person (details supplied) for whom it had responsibility by the Labour Relations Commission; its failure to publish a report on the unexpected closure of a youth facility (details supplied) in Galway city in 2005; and its inordinate delay in informing the public of both the reasons for such a closure as well as any plans for a replacement scheme.
The matter raised by Deputies Kelleher, Allen, Boyle, Lynch, Jim O'Keeffe, Coveney and Stanton has been selected for discussion.