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 Batt O'Keeffe — the immediate need to set up a national surveillance monitoring unit in view of the dramatic increase of MRSA in our acute hospitals; (2) Deputy Flaherty — the application from Dublin City University for funding towards the cost of developing sports facilities on the St. Clare lands; (3) Deputy Flanagan — the need for the Government to prepare a plan for the protection and restoration of the recently discovered Viking Fort of Dunrally in County Laois (4) Deputy Flood — the policy of the Minister for Health in relation to youth homelessness in the Clondalkin area, Dublin 22 in view of the very serious plight of three children (details supplied) from two separate families who are now homeless with no accommodation facilities, adequate family support services or counselling available to them; (5) Deputy Kirk — the serious difficulties that have arisen as a result of the transfer of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, County Louth to the North-Eastern Health Board and if the Minister will clarify the misunderstandings that have arisen as a result; (6) Deputy Matt Brennan — the urgent need for improvement works to be carried out to St. Barbara's national school, Castlerock, Aclare, County Sligo; (7) Deputy Martin — the need to ensure that the State services intervene in the case of a 15 year old girl who is homeless and without adequate care and whose difficulties were revealed in The Examiner newspaper on Wednesday, 16 April 1997; (8) Deputy Tom Foxe — the reason students studying for a degree in nursing are expected to pay university fees when all other students are exempt from same; (9) Deputy Eoin Ryan — the need to provide the necessary funding to the Barrett Cheshire Home for an extension of their facilities at Herbert Road, Dublin 2; (10) Deputy Cowen — the need to intervene in the strike by 3,000 paramedical staff which is seriously disrupting the health services.
I have selected for discussion the matters raised by Deputies Flood, Kirk, Tom Foxe and Cowen.