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 Owen – the failure to provide moneys to enterprise boards for the year 1999 due to a misinterpretation by the Department of section 10 of the Industrial Development Act, 1995, which has meant that the budget is fully spent; (2) Deputy Flanagan – the significant drop in the number of new jobs created by the Industrial Development Authority in the midlands in 1998; (3) Deputy Gerard Reynolds – the need to provide the necessary capital funding for the building of two extra classrooms at Ransboro national school, County Sligo; (4) Deputy Rabbitte – the circular issued by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to chief executives of county enterprise boards stating that no further payments would be made to boards until the enactment of the Finance Act, 1999, which is likely to be in April; if the circular has been withdrawn and if not the implications for the boards and the projects they are supporting of the freezing of such funding; (5) Deputy Farrelly – the need for the Minister for Education and Science to immediately appoint an ex-quota remedial teacher to St. Oliver's post-primary school, Oldcastle, County Meath, taking into consideration the details which he has received from the school over the past two years; (6) Deputy Gormley – the need for a remedial teacher at St. Brigid's school, Haddington Road, Dublin 4; (7) Deputy O'Sullivan – the urgent need to provide funding to ease the crisis in our criminal justice system as a result of the underfunding of State solicitors; (8) Deputy Shortall – the urgent need to grant generous tax designation to Ballymun in order to ensure its future economic viability; (9) Deputy Allen – the situation whereby gardaí have been ordered to stop vetting applicants for jobs in schools as well as youth and sporting organisations which removes one of the important safeguards that protects young people from potential abusers and which erodes dramatically the effectiveness of the codes of practice for young people in sport.
The matters raised by Deputies O'Sullivan, Owen, Rabbitte and Allen have been selected for discussion.