Before coming to the Order of Business, I propose to deal with a number of notices under Standing Order 31 and will call on the Deputies in the order in which they submitted their notes to my office.
Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 31.
I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the ongoing public health doctors' dispute, now in its ninth week, the necessity to have the strike resolved as a matter of extreme urgency, particularly in view of the imminent arrival in our country of Special Olympics athletes from all over the world, the extremely serious effects of the strike in many areas, including schools, nursing homes and national disease surveillance, and the immediate imperative to address the issues involved in the dispute in a realistic and constructive manner.
I seek the adjournment of the Dáil on the following urgent matter of national importance: the crisis level of bed closures in public hospitals, with more than 500 beds closed throughout the State this year, in particular the situation at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, where facilities have been described by a senior member of the medical team as being of eastern European standards or lower, children with vulnerable immune systems do not have the necessary separate rooms to avoid infections, communal toilets have been described as unhygienic, and up to six children per week in need of chemotherapy are being turned away because of bed shortages.
I call for the adjournment of the business of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to allow it to discuss a matter of urgent national interest, namely, to ask the Government to explain why the owners of the Atlantic Dawn shipping vessel were freely allocated 14,000 tonnes on the Irish fleet register, which has an estimated market value of €70 million, while other private fishing interests which have contracts at the same time to improve their own boats will not now be allocated any new tonnage, meaning that they or the State may have to carry the cost of the broken contracts that will result.
Having considered the matters raised, I rule that they are not in order in accordance with Standing Order 31.