Before coming to the Order of Business I propose to deal with a number of notices under Standing Order 31. I will call on Deputies in the order in which they submitted their notices 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 discuss the following important matter of public interest requiring urgent consideration, namely, the alarming failure of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, to intervene to ensure coherent management of services in the North Eastern Health Board region; the necessity to address the latest ongoing crisis regarding falsified documentation submitted by the North Eastern Health Board to Comhairle na nÓspidéal, for which no one has yet been held accountable, and the need to examine the position of management of the North Eastern Health Board pending an inquiry into a litany of catastrophes which have occurred in that health board region in recent times.
I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to discuss yesterday's terrorist attack by the Israeli Army on a peaceful demonstration in Palestine in which ten people were slaughtered and scores injured; the continued demolition of Palestinian homes, the illegal expansion of the Israeli State and the silence of the international community on the injustices towards Palestinian people.
I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to debate a matter of public importance, namely, the failure of the Department of Education and Science to proceed with previously sanctioned essential developments at Knockanillo national school, Ballina, a logical and forward-looking development, and to instead insist, due to cutbacks, on restrictive development at that school; the instruction by the Department that expenditure not exceed €100,000, a case of being penny wise and pound foolish, which will cause major problems on completion due to interference with existing structures.
I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to discuss the following matter of urgent national importance, namely, the need to invest €250,000 billion in psychiatric services for children to bring Ireland's level of care to EU standards; the fact that no money from the national treatment purchase fund has been allocated to waiting lists in the psychiatric services; the need to create 136 in-patient psychiatric beds for those under 16 years of age, most of whom overdose on drugs or cause self-harm; the availability of only 20 such beds in the State and the fact that most child psychiatrists have waiting lists of more than one year.
I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to discuss the slaughter of civilians in Palestine and Iraq by the armed forces of Israel and the United States including the mowing down of up to ten unarmed Palestinians participating in a protest demonstration in Rafah and the massacre of up to 40 people in western Iraq participating in a wedding; the need to discuss the culpability of the Irish Government in the Iraqi killings as a result of logistical support given to the United States military at Shannon; the need to withdraw, by way of protest, the invitation to President George Bush to Ireland; the need to end the occupation of Iraq and the need to discuss the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to an independent State and to self-defence.
I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to debate an issue of urgent public importance, namely, the murder of ten Palestinians and the maiming of many others while on a peaceful protest in Rafah by Israelis using tank rounds and, the need for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, to take the strongest possible action during Ireland's Presidency to ensure those responsible for this atrocity are brought to justice so that conditions for a peaceful settlement are created.
I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to discuss the extraordinary high levels of radon gas recorded in a recent survey undertaken by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland in a number of houses in Castleisland, County Kerry, in one case, the highest radon levels ever recorded in this country and the serious health implications for people living in the affected houses.
I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to debate an issue of life and death on a vast scale, a matter being overlooked by the international community, namely, the forced migration of more than one million people in western Sudan because the Government is ethnically cleansing the area and, the need to focus the EU, through the Irish Presidency, on what is among the worst humanitarian disasters on the planet and to ask why the UN and EU are apparently standing by as this disastrous crisis grows.
Having considered the matters raised, they are not in order under Standing Order 31.