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 urgent need for an increase in the financial assistance to people under the rent subsidy scheme due to the huge rise in private rents over the past 18 months; (2) Deputy Olivia Mitchell – the urgent need for Government funding to construct the essential link from Dundrum to the Southern Cross motorway; (3) Deputy Shortall – the need to address the serious discrepancy in the new drugs refund scheme where full-time students aged between 23 and 25 years old are subject to the individual limit of £42 per month regardless of their income; (4) Deputy Shatter – the arrangements necessary to facilitate parents obtaining places for their children in the new Knocklyon post-primary school for the school year commencing September 2000; (5) Deputy Durkan – the serious housing crisis in County Kildare with particular reference to meeting the needs of first time house buyers; (6) Deputy Sargent – the failure to include the construction of the northern Luas line in the National Development Plan and (7) Deputy Jim Higgins – the series of mistakes and omissions on the part of the State in its handling of the Nora Wall/Paul McCabe trial.
The matters raised by Deputies Shortall, Olivia Mitchell, Wall and Shatter have been selected for discussion.