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 Kehoe – when the construction of the new St. John's Hospital building, Enniscorthy, County Wexford, will commence; (2) Deputy Morgan – the need for full services to be restored at Louth County Hospital, Dundalk; (3) Deputy Boyle – the need to provide a repository for radioactive waste; (4) Deputy Gormley – the need for the Minister for Health and Children to initiate a non-statutory inquiry into the issue of symphysiotomy in light of the increasing information which shows that the operation may have been conducted in preference to caesarean section because of religious considerations; (5) Deputy Michael Moynihan – the need to provide temporary accommodation at St. Brendan's national school, Hollymount, Rathmore, County Kerry; (6) Deputy Naughten – the need for the Minister for Education and Science to provide classroom assistance to children with special needs in mainstream education; (7) Deputy O'Sullivan – the proposed audit of special needs resources in primary schools and the concerns that this will lead to cutbacks in the service; (8) Deputy Costello – the need for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment to ensure that the community services provided through the community employment schemes and the jobs initiative are protected and are not undermined by cutbacks being proposed at present by her Department; (9) Deputy Crowe – the decision of the Minister for Education and Science to cut child care support for students on VTOS schemes and the implications this has for access to education for young parents from disadvantaged areas; (10) Deputy Burton – the crisis in accident and emergency services at James Connolly Memorial Hospital with patients being treated in the car park, while the €96 million new hospital block remains largely closed; (11) Deputy Ring – to ask the Minister for Education and Science to restore funding to vocational education committees to allow VTOS course participants to avail of the child care allowance; what progress has been made in this regard; and if the Minister will immediately provide some special assistance to vocational education committees that are particularly badly affected; (12) Deputy Pat Breen – to ask the Minister for Transport if a special case has been put forward by the Government for Shannon Airport in view of the commencement of the EU-US negotiations on open skies; (13) Deputy Gilmore – the decision of the Minister for Education and Science to close St. Catherine's College of Home Economics, Sion Hill, Blackrock, County Dublin.
The matters raised by Deputies Costello, Michael Moynihan, Kehoe and Morgan have been selected for discussion.