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 Neville — the need for the Minister for Health and Children to introduce a universal hepatitis B vaccination programme for all infants; Deputy Naughten — the need to immediately provide adequate swimming pool facilities in County Roscommon in light of a recent accident in the county; (3) Deputy Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) — the delay in the case of an applicant for unemployment assistance who was disallowed a claim in September 1997 for not supplying information even though that information was on file in the Department; (4) Deputy Lawlor — the soaring costs of rental accommodation in the Dublin area for individuals and families on low incomes with the attendant increase in homelessness and families being housed in bed and breakfast accommodation and hostels and the pressure for increases in rent allowances paid through the Eastern Health Board and for an increase in the house building programmes of the local authorities in the Dublin area; (5) Deputy Owen — the threatened loss of jobs at the Motorola plant in Swords, County Dublin; (6) Deputy Gerard Reynolds — the need to ensure that the Department of Education and Science does not reduce by one the number of teachers at Scoil na Maighdine Muire, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim; (7) Deputy Broughan — an géarghá atá ann le meánscoil nua lánGhaelach in oirthuaisceart Bhaile Átha Cliath; (8) Deputy Ferris — the urgent need for the Minister for Agriculture and Food to take action to ensure that Tipperary race track is allocated a reasonable number of race meetings to ensure its position; (9) Deputy Fitzgerald — the widespread concern following the recent murder and series of attacks on women in the Dublin area; (10) Deputy Ring — the need to discuss whether a national school in County Mayo can be provided with a permanent stone building rather than a prefab to alleviate its overcrowding problem, considering the isolation and exposed location of the school; (11) Deputy Gormley — the issue of the “pick me up” mechanism that has been widely deployed to facilitate party political fundraising, which has facilitated tax evasion on the part of the companies which used it; (12) Deputy Kelleher — the need for a drug awareness programme to be established in all second level schools and appropriate resources to be made available and (13) Deputy Deenihan — the need to provide necessary finance as a matter of urgency for additional accommodation at Kilcohy national School, Ballybunion, County Kerry, in view of the serious overcrowding in the school.
The matters raised by Deputies Neville, Fitzgerald, Gerard Reynolds and Broughan have been selected for discussion.