I wish to inform 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 Richard Bruton – the unsatisfied needs in the hospital services system on the northside of Dublin which are leading to growing problems in casualty departments and for patients seeking access to elective surgery; (2) Deputy Clune – the need to ensure that the Irish Blood Transfusion Service is not reduced to a single site testing facility; (3) Deputy Wall – the need to review maintenance grants for third level students to ensure that they reflect the rise in inflation and that persons in receipt of benefits under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness will not be marginally over the limits; (4) Deputy Connaughton – the need to provide adequate protection for first time house buyers against builders who carry out inferior work and who go out of business before completing a new house; (5) Deputy Browne (Wexford)– the need to have the natural gas grid extended to Wexford as a matter of urgency; (6) Deputy McGinley – the urgent need to provide a nursing/respite unit on Arranmore Island, County Donegal; (7) Deputy Jim Higgins – the decision by the chief executive of CIE to resign from his post and the terms and conditions agreed between the company and the former chief executive; (8) Deputy Owen – the need for additional funding to voluntary schools for cleaning services, secretarial, caretaking and insurance services given the difference in funding between voluntary secondary schools and comprehensive/community sector schools; (9) Deputy Allen – the situation in Cork University Hospital where 31 accident and emergency patients were forced to lie on trolleys in the crowded corridors of the hospital on Tuesday last, 13 February; (10) Deputy Rabbitte – the urgent need to address the grave difficulty being experienced by the primary schools in the west Tallaght area in attracting trained teachers and the exodus of trained teachers from schools designated disadvantaged; (11) Deputy Penrose – the need to take steps to ensure that the proposals to reduce beef production, as outlined by the EU Agricultural Commissioner, Franz Fischler, yesterday, do not damage the Irish agricultural economy; (12) Deputy Broughan – the need to ensure the implementation of the recommendations arising from the tribunal of inquiry into the Stardust disaster; (13) Deputy Shortall – the urgent need to completely refurbish St. Canice's boys' national school, Finglas, Dublin 11, in view of its current very poor condition.
The matters raised by Deputies Wall, Richard Bruton, Clune and Broughan have been selected for discussion.