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 Ring – the entitlement of a person (details supplied) to invalidity pension and the need to consider the use of an independent ombudsman for appeals; (2) Deputy Marian McGennis – the need to consider introducing legislation to allow children in long-term foster care receive the same treatment as children of the foster family for purposes of inheritance tax; (3) Deputy Clune – the need to address low voter turnout at elections following the recent poll of 30 per cent in the Dublin South Central by-election and the publication of the National Youth Council of Ireland survey of young voters; (4) Deputy Flanagan – the involvement of the Minister and the State in the High Court on 3 November in a case of the lawsuit of a Sligo stonemason; (5) Deputy Gormley – the need to reconsider the removal from health stores of a range of health products, including St. John's Wort; (6) Deputy Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny)– the need to provide funding to introduce the Arrow train service to include Carlow and Athy to Dublin; (7) Deputy Stanton – the need to enable escorts to be employed on school buses transporting children with special needs to and from school; (8) Deputy Broughan – the urgent need to provide substantial resources in the budget for youth education, sport and leisure to support the anti-joyriding task force in Dublin North-East; (9) Deputy Perry – the granting of city status to Sligo in the millennium year; (10) Deputy Naughten – the need for the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to put in place special measures to encourage people with disability into the workforce; (11) Deputy Jim Higgins – the abduction of a bank official and her husband on Friday last and the subsequent robbery of £0.5 million from a financial institution (details supplied) in Dublin 2; (12) Deputy Seán Ryan – the need for additional caretaking services at both Pope John Paul national school and St. Sylvester's infant national school, Malahide; (13) Deputy Timmins – the failure of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development to provide adequate staff to address the increasing difficulties with TB in west Wicklow; (14) Deputy Durkan – the need to discuss the reference to publications in the Library in the reply of Parliamentary Question No. 195 of 6 October 1999; (15) Deputy O'Sullivan – the failure of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to ensure that the new prisons at Clover Hill and Mountjoy are in a position to take in prisoners; (16) Deputy Keaveney – the need for air access to Donegal to be addressed in the national development plan to assist in job creation initiatives in the region; (17) Deputy Neville – the death by suicide of a prisoner at Wheatfield Prison on 4 November; (18) Deputy Rabbitte – the need for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to announce the measures being put in place to ensure the employment of the 2,800 workers under the whole time job initiative programme; (19) Deputy Yates – the need for adequate funding for two tourism projects in County Wexford.
The matters raised by Deputies Jim Higgins, Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny), Perry and Flanagan have been selected for discussion.