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 Ring – the payment of unemployment benefit to a person in County Mayo; (2) Deputy Crawford – the urgent need for Government to commit funding for the Castle Saunderson Camp site, (Cavan-Monaghan), for all the scouts on the island of Ireland. This is a true project to foster peace and reconciliation among people from both sides of the Border; (3) Deputy Keaveney – the recent decision by the British Army board to reject applications to discharge guardsman James Fisher and guardsman Mark Douglas Wright from the British Army; (4) Deputy Currie – the recent decision by the British Army board to reject applications to discharge guardsman James Fisher and guardsman Mark Douglas Wright from the British Army; (5) Deputy Ó Caoláin – the need for the Irish Government to oppose the proposal from the British Government to introduce a special levy by way of a disc for haulage vehicles using roads in the Six Counties and Britain; (6) Deputy Durkan – to ascertain whether the Minister is aware of the intensive flooding which has affected large areas of north Kildare over the past weekend, if he is conscious that the areas affected represent a recurrence of events of some weeks ago, that the same areas have also been flooded in 1994 and 1986, if he is conscious of the vast damage done to property and households, the fact that many householders now have great difficulty obtaining home insurance, if he recognises the need for the implementation of an integrated drainage programme to cater for the entire area, particularly since many rivers, streams and waterways have not been cleaned up for up to 40 years, if he will make a statement on the matter; (7) Deputy Allen – the threat posed to the national community games by the decision of the Government to acquire Mosney as a location for refugees and asylum seekers without adequate consultation with the national executive of the community games about a suitable alternative venue for the games; (8) Deputy Jim Higgins – the totally inadequate services, particularly speech therapy services, for children suffering from Downs syndrome in County Mayo; (9) Deputy Michael Moynihan – the need to discuss the case of a person in relation to school transport to Meelin national school; (10) Deputy Fitzgerald – the procedure used by government for appointment to the human rights commission.
The matters raised by Deputies Keaveney, Currie, Ó Caoláin and Fitzgerald have been selected for discussion.