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 Connaughton – the steps taken to ensure the live export of cattle will be safeguarded by ensuring the resting stations for cattle in transit will be maintained across Europe; (2) Deputy Coveney – if the Minister is satisfied that systems are in place within the Air Corps search and rescue service relating to safety equipment and servicing of that equipment and if he can reassure the House that the crews undertaking the task of providing a modern and safe search and rescue service are doing so in a safe and proper working environment; (3) Deputy Naughten – the need for the Minister for Transport to outline his plans to upgrade the service on the Sligo and Westport rail lines in the light of a number of recent safety concerns regarding carriages; (4) Deputy Ring – to ask the Minister to exempt elected representatives from having to pay the fee for third party FOI requests and the reason it was deemed necessary to make charges for FOI requests; (5) Deputy McGinley – the serious deterioration in the standard of search and rescue services in the north-west and the implications for fishermen and mariners in that area; (6) Deputy Breeda Moynihan-Cronin – the need for urgent refurbishment and repairs at Lauragh national school, Killarney, County Kerry; (7) Deputy Burton – the reports at the weekend of up to €4 billion held in offshore accounts in the Isle of Man and the implications of this for the integrity of the taxation system, the compliant PAYE taxpayer and the activities of banks and other financial institutions in facilitating such offshore tax evasion; (8) Deputy Deenihan – the need to carry out a special investigation into the alarmingly high levels of radon gas in the Castleisland and Tralee areas of County Kerry; (9) Deputy Healy – the urgent need for the Minister to approve a staffing allocation of €3.2 million for the South-Eastern Health Board to enable the opening of the new surgical unit at St. Joseph's Hospital, Clonmel; (10) Deputy Costello – the need for the Minister for Education and Science to make an order under section 4(1) and (2) of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 extending the remit of the Act and the Residential Institutions Redress Board to Protestant residential institutions and other institutions omitted in the original schedule of institutions; (11) Deputy Boyle – the need to bring into place adequate building regulations to prevent the build up of radon gas; (12) Deputy Devins – the withdrawal of container freight services by Iarnród Éireann on the Sligo-Dublin line; (13) Deputy Kehoe – the need for the Minister to clarify his policy on the future status of Bord Iascaigh Mhara and if it is his intention to retain the independence of this body rather than amalgamating BIM with existing statutory organisations; (14) Deputy Eamon Ryan – whether the Minister for Transport can confirm the information provided by the National Roads Authority to a Dáil committee on 21 October that the design of the Luas at the Red Cow roundabout will have no effect on the traffic flows at the roundabout; whether the Minister will reconsider the need for an immediate decision on the NRA's proposed upgrade of the Red Cow roundabout given that the perceived problem with the Luas at the junction does not appear to exist; can he confirm if the Dublin Transportation Office has advised his Department, in relation to the Government approved Platform for Change transport plan, that the major public transport projects will have to be in place prior to any investment in upgrading the M50, given a fear that providing additional road space first, would further the development of our city along the motorway, which would make the public transport projects less viable; (15) Deputy Morgan – the necessity for the Minister to address the critical situation at Scoil Uí Mhuirí, Dunleer, County Louth; the unacceptable situation whereby children are suffering unnecessarily as a result of the atrocious conditions at the school which was promised a replacement building 20 years ago; the fact that children and teachers continue to get drenched as they move between classes and are permanently cold because of rotting windows falling out of classrooms and permanent accommodation of only six classrooms; the necessity for the Minister to intervene as a matter of urgency to ensure students at Scoil Uí Mhuirí are provided with a new school building which would allow them full access to their right to education; (16) Deputy Andrews – to ask the Minister to clarify his position in regard to new premises for Monkstown Educate Together national school and reclassify its catchment area as a priority developing area given the acute shortage of land.
The matters raised by Deputies Breeda Moynihan-Cronin, Devins, Deenihan and Boyle have been selected for discussion.