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 Gay Mitchell – the delays of up to three years in having the occupational therapy unit of the Eastern Regional Health Authority assess the needs of disabled and elderly people; (2) Deputy Owen – the delays in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in the issuing of work permits to non-EEA citizens and the consequent difficulties being caused to many businesses; (3) Deputy Allen – the situation facing workers on phase 1 of the jobs initiative programme whose contracts will expire at the end of June 2000; (4) Deputy Theresa Ahearn – the urgency for additional staff to reduce the current two to three year waiting period for assessment for potential adoptive parents in south Tipperary; (5) Deputy Neville – the need for the inspector of mental health hospitals to investigate the placement of children in psychiatric hospitals because there are no suitable places available in residential centres for children; (6) Deputy Perry – the need to appoint a teacher to Achonry national school, County Sligo, due to the increase in the numbers in the school catchment area; (7) Deputy Ulick Burke – the urgent need to sanction and approve a school transport service for girls attending Seamount College, Kinvara, County Galway, from the surrounding catchment area prior to the end of the current school term; (8) Deputy Moloney – the need to decentralise a further division of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development to Portlaoise and a division of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform to Portarlington; (9) Deputy McGuinness – the need to introduce a plan of action to deal with the curtailment of anaesthetic services for elective surgery and epidurals; (10) Deputy Coveney – the action the Government is taking to deal with the increasing problem of homelessness in Cork city; (11) Deputy Wall – the current situation of Irish troops serving with UNIFIL in Lebanon; (12) Deputy Fitzgerald – the withdrawal of Israeli defence forces from South Lebanon and the implication for Irish Defence Forces serving there; (13) Deputy Quinn – the need to conclude the consultation process on the future of the jobs initiative programme; (14) Deputy Jim Higgins – the death of eight heroin addicted persons in Dublin hospitals over the past two weeks and the suspicion that the deaths were caused by contaminated drugs; (15) Deputy Yates – the price set by the Government for shares in Eircom at the time of the IPO; (16) Deputy Upton – the urgent need for new, improved measures to treat heroin addicts and prevent heroin addiction among young people in the light of the recent heroin related deaths in Dublin; (17) Deputy Stanton – the need to reorganise and to provide more resources for the Health and Safety Authority in light of recent reports concerning safety in the workplace and the number of accidents and fatalities occurring; and (18) Deputy Durkan – the reply of the Minister for Health and Children to parliamentary Question No. 283 of 10 May 2000 regarding the application of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations, 1994.
The matters raised by Deputies Yates, Fitzgerald, Jim Higgins and Upton have been selected for discussion.