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 Naughten — the need to immediately provide additional funding for orthodontic services in the Western Health Board region; (2) Deputy Matt Brennan — the urgent need for a new fire station in Tubbercurry, County Sligo; (3) Deputy Lawlor — the inclusion of inoculation against hepatitis B, particularly for infants, within the current vaccinations schemes, given the increasing evidence of underestimation of the true incidence of the virus; (4) Deputy Flanagan — the serious shortage of post leaving certificate places in County Laois and the need for action thereon; (5) Deputy Donal Carey — the imminent loss of the 4th assistant teacher at Kilkishen national school, County Clare, which is classified as educationally disadvantaged under Department guidelines; (6) Deputy Deenihan — the potential loss of investment in this country from the Silicon Valley-San Jose area because of the non-availability of direct flights to Ireland; (7) Deputy Neville — the need to ensure the proposed extension to the Salesian secondary college, Pallaskenry, County Limerick, is completed in 1998; (8) Deputy Browne (Wexford)— the need to make funds available for the upgrading of St. John's Hospital, Enniscorthy, County Wexford; (9) Deputies Brendan Smith, Doherty and Kirk — the need to ensure the 1997-98 staffing levels are retained in primary schools in rural Ireland where difficulties exist due to a small decline in enrolment; (10) Deputy O'Shea — the need for the Department of Education and Science to provide an educational psychological service to primary schools in County Waterford; (11) Deputy Jim Higgins — the urgent need to instruct the Central Fisheries Board to lift its traps and cages and allow salmon upstream in view of the disastrous season being encountered by salmon anglers on the Moy; (12) Deputy Foley — the need to clarify the position on the reallocation of EU funding to the Killarney to Tralee railway line; (13) Deputy Enright — the failure, over a four year period, by the Department of Agriculture and Food to notify farmers of their liability to repay Land Commission annuities as the Department is now exerting severe pressure on farmers to repay these annuities; (14) Deputy Upton — the need to allow asylum seekers, whose application for asylum has not been determined within a period of six months, to be given the right to work until their application is ruled upon; (15) Deputy Gilmore — the outcome of meetings between the Minister for Marine and Natural Resources and representatives of a company (details supplied) and SIPTU regarding the dispute over the staffing policy of the company in regard to the oil rig due to commence exploration work off the west coast; (16) Deputy McGinley — the need to ensure that the 15 primary teachers in County Donegal being put on the panel should be redeployed as remedial teachers to serve as many as possible of the 70 schools in the county without such a service; (17) Deputy Gerard Reynolds — the need to make urgent provision of finance to Sligo Corporation for works to be carried out on the houses in Banks Drive, Sligo; (18) Deputy Ulick Burke — the need to make resources available to the Western Health Board to alleviate the hardship caused by the 50 per cent cutback in necessary supplies to public health nurses in their work within the community.
The matters raised by Deputies Deenihan, Foley, Flanagan and O'Shea have been selected for discussion.