I now propose to deal with requests to move the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31. I will call on the Deputies in the order in which they submitted their notices to my office.
Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 31.
In accordance with Standing Order 31 I seek the adjournment of the Dáil to discuss the following matter, namely, the need to ensure Government Ministers stop waffling when responding to questions from Members of this House, the necessity to ensure that a proper standard of response is given by all Ministers and Ministers of State to questions from Members of this House. Last week the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, with responsibility for housing, Deputy Noel Ahern, gave an evasive, meaningless answer to a question regarding the delivery of 10,000 housing units in line with commitments in the Sustaining Progress agreement. That is grounds for dismissal. It is interesting to note that within a matter of days the Minister of State was able to provide journalists with the details which he refused to provide to a Member regarding the affordable housing scheme.
In accordance with Standing Order 31 I seek leave to move the adjournment of the Dáil on a specific and important matter of public interest requiring urgent consideration, namely, in regard to the alarming waiting lists for civil legal aid at many free legal aid centres, and considering that this denies access to the law for many hundreds of people, and in view of the cutbacks of €525,000 in funding to the Legal Aid Board, that the Government should restore funding to the Legal Aid Board as a matter of priority. I beg the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence for a slight change in the wording of my notice. I mentioned "free legal advice centres" but I would like to correct that to the Legal Aid Board.
I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to deal with a very urgent matter and allow the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to make a statement on the admission by a waste management company, based in County Wicklow that it bribed a Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council official with a payment of €25,000 to allow illegal dumping take place at an official landfill.
I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 31 to discuss a matter of urgent national interest, namely the revelation by the National Roads Authority at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport yesterday that the current Luas design for the Red Cow roundabout will not affect traffic flows at the roundabout, and its admission that the proposed change and upgrade of the junction is simply an exercise in increasing road capacity on the M50 but that the NRA has no suggestions where the extra 40,000 cars being encouraged on to the road network will end up, and the need for the Minister for Transport to defer any decision on the M50 upgrade given that the anticipated problem which prompted fast-tracking of the decision does not now exist and that the Government's Platform for Change transport plan—
The Deputy should note it is not appropriate to go beyond the notice submitted to my office.
The Government should insist that public transport projects be funded ahead of any upgrade to existing infrastructure.
Having considered the matters raised they are not in order under Standing Order 31.