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 Wall — the need to implement measures to attract industry and employment to Athy, County Kildare, to replace the serious job losses that the town and surrounding area has suffered in recent years; (2) Deputy Brian Lenihan — the issue of special educational needs for autistic children and, in particular, the future of Beechpark Special School, Stillorgan, County Dublin; (3) Deputy Lawlor — the possibilities for increasing the pressure on the new regime in Indonesia in relation to vindicating the basic human rights of the people of East Timor, now that Presidential Suharto has departed; (4) Deputy McGinley — the urgent need to have residential care facilities for the elderly on Arranmore Island, County Donegal; (5) Deputy Rabbitte — the reasons given by a member of the Insurance Ombudsman Council for his resignation from the council and the need for the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to outline the steps she has taken to satisfy herself as to the veracity of these reasons; (6) Deputy Hayes — the need to address the serious financial position that faces a number of organisations partially funded by the European Social Fund under the INTERREG II Programme, and to clarify when funding will become available for these organisations; (7) Deputy Creed — the need to outline the rationale behind his decision to relocate certain functions of the Department of Agriculture and Food from Hibernian House, South Mall, Cork to Clonakilty; (8) Deputy Briscoe — the plans the Government has to introduce a scheme where couples intending to marry are required to take blood tests to ensure that they are not related; (9) Deputy Neville — the need to introduce suicide prevention programmes in view of the increase of 14 per cent in the levels of suicide in 1997; (10) Deputy Allen — the uncertain situation for staff and their families arising from the threat of closure of the printed circuit board unit of Apple Computers, Cork, with a possible loss of 500 jobs and the steps being taken to prevent this; (11) Deputy O'Shea — the need to review the national school capitation system so that it does not discriminate against schools where special needs children are fully integrated into the mainstream school system; (12) Deputy Clune — the need to begin an investigation into the high price of sun tan protection lotions; and (13) Deputy Timmins — the ambulance strike in Wicklow.
The matters raised by Deputies Wall, Rabbitte, Hayes and Allen have been selected for discussion.