Before coming to the Order of Business, I propose to deal with a number of notices under Standing Order 32. I will call on Deputies in the order in which they submitted their notices to my office.
Requests to move Adjournment of Dáil under Standing Order 32.
I seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to address the following matter of urgent public importance: the need for the Minister for Health and Children to increase the income threshold for medical card eligibility in light of the Combat Poverty Agency report showing that almost 250,000 people at risk of poverty were unable to access medical cards and that 43,000 of these were living in consistent poverty, and the need for the Minister to act on the recommendations of the Combat Poverty Agency and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to set aside the two-tiered structure of our health care system and replace it with a system based on need alone, including a single waiting list for all hospital patients.
I seek leave to move a motion for the adjournment of the Dáil on the following specific and important matter of public interest requiring urgent consideration, namely, in light of yesterday's massive cocaine find in the sea off of west Cork, reported to have a value of at least €200 million, the scale of which is indicative of the market here for this dangerous and illegal substance, the urgent need for the Government to use every resource available to underpin and implement all five pillars of the national drugs strategy, including tackling the popular misconception that this drug is somehow safe, interrupting supply chains through increasing the number of gardaí dedicated to drug squads at national and local levels and reversing the funding shortfalls from budget 2007.
I wish to seek leave to move a motion for the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 on a specific and important matter of public interest requiring urgent consideration, that is, the find of a massive cocaine haul floating off the coast of south-west Cork in Dun Lough Bay near Mizen Head yesterday, 2 July 2007, valued at more than €200 million, making it the largest drugs find in the history of the State and thus proving that priority must be given by the Taoiseach to policing the coastline, which must involve high levels of investment in our coastal defences and more money being given to gardaí to patrol coastal areas between the hours of 3 a.m. and 7 a.m., the time when these boys operate. Gardaí should not be watching the unfortunate people who, after drinking two or three pints of stout in their locals, cannot go home without being interrupted at 11 p.m. or midnight.
Deputies
Hear, hear.
The Deputy should mind himself.
Extra money should be provided for coastal Garda services, which were the first to detect this haul, and the Naval Service and customs and excise.
Hear, hear.
A Deputy
The Deputy should not eat the fish from down there for a few weeks.
Under Standing Order 32, I wish to raise a matter of national concern, namely, the attempted landing of significant quantities of cocaine off the west Cork coast, with an estimated street value of up to €300 million, more than the entire value of all drugs seized in 2006, its interception by authorities purely by chance and good fortune and, therefore, the need to assess Ireland's state of preparedness to police our coastline in response to the clear and present threat of drug smuggling.
I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 on a matter of urgent public importance, namely, the attempted importation of cocaine with a value of at least €105 million by a major international crime syndicate, its seizure by mere accident, in the context of Ireland being a gateway to the European drugs trade and in light of the worsening drugs crisis and the devastation it is causing in many communities here.
I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of national importance, namely, the need to amend the Local Government Act 2001 to enable members of a local authority who have been barred from membership for five years due to the non-payment of a legal bill or any other such payment to be readmitted if such payment is made.
I wish to seek the adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise a matter of urgent public importance, namely, the need to amend the Local Government Act 2001 to enable members of a local authority who have been barred from membership for five years due to the non-payment of a legal bill or any other such payment to be readmitted if such payment is made.
Having considered the matters raised, they are not in order under Standing Order 32.