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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 3 Nov 2010

Vol. 720 No. 4

Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 32

Before coming to the Order of Business, I propose to deal with a number of notices under Standing Order 32. I will call on the Deputies in the order in which they submitted their notices to my office. First, I call Deputy John O'Mahony.

Continuing the theme of jobs mentioned earlier, I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the loss of 200 jobs in County Mayo and the urgent need to address the employment deficit in the county. Mayo currently has an unemployment rate of 13,000, which is one of the biggest for any of the rural constituencies in this country. The chief executive officers of four multinational companies, which employ 3,000 directly in the county and contribute €350 million in taxes annually to the Exchequer, have constantly raised this Government's failure to address the upgrade of the N5 and N26 roads. Those companies have stated directly to the Taoiseach on a number of occasions that they are competing with plants in other parts of the world that have excellent infrastructure. This is more about protection of jobs than extra expenditure and I seek the adjournment of the Dáil in that regard.

Ba mhaith liom an Dáil a chur ar athló chun déileáil leis an ghné ríthábhachtach seo: the urgent need for the Government to abandon its plans to liberalise postal services because such a move would threaten the viability of the postal service itself and 10,000 jobs, as evidenced in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, which demonstrated that liberalisation in this field results in the erosion of service levels, job losses and social dumping, including the proliferation of insecure low paid employment, and because such a move would also threaten the existing universal service obligation operated by An Post, which ensures equal access to postal deliveries at a single price regardless of geographic location.

I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the serious situation that has arisen within the mental health services which has had resources cut unfairly and disproportionately, with spending reduced to 9.2% between 2006 and 2009, and that 5.3% of the overall health budget is now at the lowest level in the history of the State, at a time when there is an increase in mental health difficulties resulting from the economic crisis and a consequential increase of suicidal behaviour resulting in fatal and non-fatal self-harming, and that suicide rates in 2009 increased by 25% and now stand at 527 deaths, with self-harming increased by 10% and self-harming and attempted suicide now estimated at 70,000 per annum.

Having considered the matters raised, they are not in order under Standing Order 32.

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