I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the continued closure of post offices throughout the country and in particular the closure of post offices in the Rathgar, Terenure and Kenilworth areas of Dublin South-East, which is causing great inconvenience for local people and the need for the Government to properly address this issue by ensuring proper incentives and measures are put in place in order that essential post office services can continue in the community.
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 new charges of between €90 and €120 per week now being levied by the Health Service Executive on people with physical or intellectual disability who reside in a community residence where nursing care is provided, the result of which reduces their weekly welfare income to €35 per week, which must cover the cost of providing themselves with, for example, clothes and a social life. The Health (Amendment) Act 2005, which is intended to charge those who live in nursing homes, is now being applied to this vulnerable group, which will have a significant negative impact on their quality of life.
I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of major national and local importance, namely, to ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he is aware that an antiquated radio link and satellite link telephone service still exists in Glenhest and Lettermoghera, Newport, County Mayo and that this is causing ongoing long-term problems for the people affected; is he aware that if one telephone is without service then all telephones are out, that panic buttons for the elderly living alone do not work in that instance; that even if the telephone is out of order it still has a ring tone causing immense confusion to older people in particular; that if there is an ESB outage then all telephones are out of order and the majority of the people in the Glenhest and Lettermoghera, Newport, County Mayo area are affected, and this is causing distress and needs urgent replacement and upgrading.
I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the need to set up an independent inquiry to investigate the serious allegations concerning the running of the public orthodontic service.
I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the need for the Government to allocate time on the Dáil schedule during the International 16 Days of Action Opposing Violence Against Women to debate and address the grave funding shortfalls resulting from a Government-imposed funding cap since 2002 which meant that 10,000 calls to the Women's Aid helpline went unanswered last year and many more women in grave need were denied essential services; the urgent need to prescribe and resource a new role for the probation and welfare service in barring orders, the need to ensure that the review of funding to the National Domestic Violence Intervention Agency results in an increase, the failure of the Garda to keep comprehensive records of domestic violence incidents and to collect statistics, and the need for ongoing risk assessments to be conducted on the safety of women following their engagement with those services.
I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the proposal by Government to purchase €5 million in the Multilateral Carbon Credit Fund of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development that will reduce emissions in countries such as Albania, Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan, otherwise known as the Borat Buy-out, rather than concentrating on reducing climate change emissions here in Ireland through investing in renewable energy, public transport and higher building standards.
Having considered the matters raised, they are not in order under Standing Order 31.