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 Tom Sheahan — the direction given the board of management at a school regarding the implementation of an Irish only policy; (2) Deputy Bernard Durkan — the site development costs of the subsidised sites at Easton Mews, Leixlip, County Kildare; (3) Deputy Thomas Broughan — the need for the Minister for Health and Children to address the decision of the Health Service Executive, HSE, to withdraw funding for new bed facilities at the Hamilton Park Nursing Home in Balrothery, Balbriggan on 3 October last when citizens, including a senior constituent who is a stroke patient and currently in the National Rehabilitation Hospital, have been arbitrarily deprived of much needed care and treatment at the Balrothery nursing home; and if the Minister will make a statement on this and other arbitrary health cuts by HSE senior management; (4) Deputy Paul Connaughton — the need for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to address the matter of an increasing number of daring raids carried out in rural areas in County Galway in the recent past, many such raids involve people living on their own in remote rural areas and many of the break-ins seem to have been executed against a background of very detailed local knowledge which is causing great anxiety to people generally in the areas concerned; (5) Deputy James Bannon — the delay within the European Union for the approval of feed crops with a GM component; (6) Deputy Deirdre Clune — the need to increase services for those suffering from eating disorders; (7) Deputies Jan O'Sullivan and Aengus Ó Snodaigh — the dispute between the HSE and the Irish Pharmaceutical Union over charging policy for drugs; (8) Deputy Martin Ferris — the need for extra accommodation to be provided in the maternity unit at Kerry General Hospital; (9) Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh — the need for the Minister for Health and Children to intervene in the pharmacy services crisis which has seen the treatment of approximately 3,000 methadone patients in the greater Dublin area disrupted and to find a real and lasting solution because the contingency plan in place is no substitute for the pre-existing dispensing arrangements in that it does not best accommodate the stabilisation requirements of addicts on the road to recovery many of whom have returned to education and employment which may now be jeopardised; (10) Deputy Kathleen Lynch — to ask the Minister for Health and Children if she is aware of the serious concerns that have been voiced by community child care groups regarding the new NCIP community childcare subvention scheme; whether she agrees that many community child care facilities will experience considerable financial shortfalls under the new funding guidelines and that this could lead to the closure of some facilities; whether she further agrees that working parents on low incomes will be penalised by the ending of the equal opportunities childcare programme, EOCP, as the new NCIP subvention scheme is only available to social welfare recipients or those on family income supplement and will she make a statement on the matter
The matters raised by Deputies Jan O'Sullivan and Aengus Ó Snodaigh, James Bannon, Tom Sheahan and Bernard Durkan have been selected for discussion.