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 Wall – the need for the Minister for Defence to make a statement regarding the Department of Finance proposals for the future of the Defence Forces; (2) Deputy Broughan – the urgent need to introduce major measures to end the life threatening menace of joyriding on the northside of Dublin; (3) Deputy Shatter – the need to discuss the proposal of the Minister for Health and Children to transfer the haematology unit of the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin and his refusal to meet with concerned parents of paediatric leukaemia patients currently undergoing treatment; (4) Deputy Creed – the urgent need for the Department of Education and Science to sanction the proposed extension to St. Mary's secondary school, Macroom; (5) Deputy Timmins – the need to discuss the proposed cutbacks in the Defence Forces; (6) Deputy McGennis – the need for the Minister for Education and Science to investigate the reports that files relating to people placed into the industrial school system by the ISPCC, and its predecessor the NSPCC, may have been destroyed; (7) Deputy Hayes – the need for the Minister for the Environment and Local Government to address the fact that more than 80 per cent of landlords operating within the private rented sector have yet to register with their local authority; (8) Deputy Sheehan – the need to discuss the serious position whereby all EU payments such as early retirement pensions, REP scheme payments and all other EU payments are reduced by 5.055 per cent since 1 January last and the steps being taken to combat this serious situation appertaining to the farming community; (9) Deputy Naughten – the need for the Minister for Health and Children to initiate a public inquiry into the adverse reactions associated with the three-in-one vaccine; (10) Deputy Cooper-Flynn – the need for the Tánaiste Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to outline her plans to save the All-Fresh Bakery, Charlestown, which employed 100 people and the efforts being made by her Department and all relevant agencies to attract a new industry to Charlestown; (11) Deputy Fitzgerald – the need to discuss the reported attempts by the Department of Finance to reverse settled policy on the size and functions of the Permanent Defence Force thereby jeopardising Ireland's ability to fulfil its commitment to UN peacekeeping operations and to undertake membership of Partnership for Peace; (12) Deputy Gerry Reynolds – the need to provide the necessary capital funding for the building of two extra classrooms at Ransboro national school, County Sligo; (13) Deputy Finucane – the need to discuss the withdrawal of the traceability contract by the Department of Agriculture and Food which will lead to the loss and closure of Scanmasters Ltd. a subsidiary of Aluset Ltd. in Kilfinane, County Limerick; (14) Deputy Theresa Ahearn – the need for a total renovation programme to be carried out in Clonmel Garda station; (15) Deputy Deenihan – the need to discuss the inconvenience and hardship being experienced by many Kerry mothers who are forced to travel to hospitals outside of the county to give birth because of the lack of an adequate epidural service at Tralee General Hospital, County Kerry; (16) Deputy Upton – the need for the Minister for Environment and Local Government to examine the reform of local government in Dublin, to include such aspects as an elected lord mayor and ward councils; (17) Deputy Power – the need to discuss the future of the Defence Forces and the need for the Minister to clarify the position following the leak from the Department of Finance; (18) Deputy Stanton – the need to discuss what action, if any, the Government is taking to safeguard Irish trade from possible sanction as a result of the banana dispute between the EU and the USA and (19) Deputy Enright – the need for the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands to enter discussions with the RTE authority regarding the provision of an adequate morning news service on the national television channels in view of the fact that the only breakfast news available in the State at present is provided by foreign channels. The matters raised by Deputies Wall, Fitzgerald, Shatter and Broughan have been selected for discussion.
