Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 27 May 2003

Vol. 567 No. 5

Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 31.

Before coming to the Order of Business, I propose to deal with a number of topics under Standing Order 31. I will call on the Deputies in the order in which they submitted their notices to my office. I call Deputy Olivia Mitchell.

Under Standing Order 31, I seek the adjournment of the Dáil to discuss the following urgent and important matter, namely, the arrival of the first of hundreds of similar letters to the families of disabled children informing them of the withdrawal of services from their 18th birthdays; to acknowledge this is the most extreme form of educational disadvantage and goes beyond what is tolerable; and to achieve the diverting of funds spent contesting court cases by distraught parents seeking education for their children into the provision of educational services for these children.

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the dispute involving members of the CPSU in the Department of Agriculture and Food which is severely disrupting services to the farming communities in counties Kerry, Mayo, Galway, Limerick and the town of Clonakilty, and which will escalate to other counties if not resolved.

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise the following specific and important matter, namely, the nonsensical position whereby local authority planners are prohibited from considering the health and environmental effects of poisonous emissions from proposed incinerators; that the position be amended to facilitate consideration of health and environmental factors which are the most important issues affecting residents who are real people; that the House debate the issue urgently to provide such an amendment and that the Minister for the Environment and Local Government ban any further development of incinerators pending the adoption of this amendment.

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to discuss the following matter of urgent national importance, namely, the removal of brains from diseased adults who were suicide victims and others who suffered from depression; the confirmation that this practice occurred in Dublin at St. James's Hospital, Beaumont Hospital and St. Vincent's Hospital, in Cork University Hospital and Galway University Hospital; and the need to outline the full extent of the practice throughout the State, the policy of the Minister for Health and Children, the number of people involved, the procedures, if any, to obtain consent of the relatives, the research being carried out, the location at which such research is being carried out, if the practice is continued and the method of disposal of the organs after completion of the research, the trauma visited on relatives of the victims and the failure of the Minister for Health and Children to supply information in a reply to my Dáil question last Thursday.

Under Standing Order 31, I seek the adjournment of the Dáil to discuss the following specific and important matter of public interest requiring urgent attention: the serious implications for the Irish fishing industry of the failure of the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to secure agreement at yesterday's Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Brussels on measures to ensure the integrity of the Irish Box and the need for the Minister to outline to Dáil Éireann the steps he proposes to take on this matter to protect the Irish Box.

It is just as well the Deputy is not in charge.

Allow Deputy Timmins, without interruption.

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 on a matter of urgent national importance, namely, that despite the allocation of €216 million in the agriculture Estimates for animal disease, with €67 million allocated for TB and brucellosis eradication, food safety is being compromised by the failure, due to the ongoing industrial dispute at his Department, of the Minister for Agriculture and Food to ensure diseased animals are slaughtered.

A Cheann Comhairle, I understand from some of my more senior parliamentary colleagues that you occasionally allow debates. Therefore, I ask that this matter be given strong consideration.

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to debate an issue of ongoing urgent national importance, namely, the need for the Government and the Minister for Education and Science to clarify what measures they will introduce to tackle the largest single barrier to access to education among persons from disadvantaged backgrounds – the lack of resources allocated at pre-school, primary and second level – and the need for an honest and open debate between the Progressive Democrats and Fianna Fáil in this House on how we can work together to ensure more of our young people are in a position to be successful in the leaving certificate examination and thus qualify for the third level grants increase which the Minister announced.

Having considered all the matters raised, they are not in order under Standing Order 31.

Top
Share