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 Hayes – the need for the Minister for Education and Science to provide additional educational facilities for St. Killian's senior school, Kingswood, Tallaght; (2) Deputy Creed – the need to acknowledge the special position of primary schools in Gaeltacht areas and, in particular, the need to reduce the pupil teacher ratio in these schools to the same level as those in Gaelscoileanna; (3) Deputy Gerard Reynolds – the need to provide the necessary capital funding for the building of two extra classrooms at Ransboro national school, County Sligo; (4) Deputy Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny)– the need to discuss the issuing of a commemorative stamp to honour the centenary of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association; (5) Deputy Cooper-Flynn – the need for the Office of Public Works to carry out repair work to the banks of the Owenbrin river in County Mayo in view of extensive damage to farmland and the risk to houses from flooding; (6) Deputy Deenihan – the need to discuss the inconvenience and hardship being experienced by many Kerry mothers who are forced to travel to hospitals outside the county to give birth because of the lack of an adequate epidural service at Tralee General Hospital, County Kerry; (7) Deputy Ring – the need for the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to provide funding for the Westport sewerage scheme and to put this project out to tender in 1999; (8) Deputy Ferris – the need for a replacement factory, the reappointment of the jobs task force and retraining of the workforce in light of the loss of 135 jobs at Schiesser International, Clonmel, County Tipperary; (9) Deputy Stanton – the need for the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to make funding available to enable stabilisation works to be carried out in Cobh, County Cork, because of the serious danger caused to public safety by landslides; (10) Deputy Seán Ryan – the need for the Minister for Health and Children to outline the steps he will take to overcome objections from some GPs to the reform of the medical card guidelines for those over 70; (11) Deputy Upton – the need for the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to examine the reform of local government in Dublin, to include such aspects as an elected lord mayor and ward councils; (12) Deputy Rabbitte – the urgent need for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to ensure that the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act, 1996, is fully enforced in relation to the employment of school going students and (13) Deputy Killeen – the need to ensure that Shannon Airport's role in balanced regional development in the west of Ireland is not undermined in the quest for strategic partners for Aer Lingus.
The matters raised by Deputies Ferris, Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny), Seán Ryan and Creed have been selected for discussion.