Séamus Pattison (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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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 Callanan — the need to expedite the building of a new school in Aughrim to replace the grossly overcrowded one that exists at present; (2) Deputy Catherine Murphy — the continued method of allocating funds to local authorities based on the needs and resources model which is unfair to developing counties. When commercial rates receipts and transfers from the local government fund are combined the per capita spend demonstrates just how disadvantaged the most rapidly developing counties are. The ability of these counties to absorb additional population and build quality communities is impacted by this continuing situation; (3) Deputy Burton — the failure of the Minister to provide more language resource teachers for schools in Dublin West and other areas for large numbers of international pupils with limited or no English language skills and the huge difficulties this is causing for all pupils and teachers in such schools contrary to repeated promises and undertakings made by the Minister and her officials to address this urgent problem; (4) Deputy Deenihan — the reason for the delay in the technical assessment of the amalgamation of the primary schools in Lixnaw, County Kerry; (5) Deputy Gogarty — the need for the Government to purchase the lands at St. Edmundsbury/Woodville or to extend the Special Amenity Area Order as far as the Lucan Road so these lands can be preserved intact for future generations, preferably as part of a Liffey Valley national or regional park; (6) Deputy Cowley — to ask the Minister if she will carry out an urgent review of the DEIS scheme for nine Mayo schools (details supplied) which will be affected, if she agrees this is an inequitable situation and not in the spirit of helping the disadvantaged and if she will confirm the affected Mayo secondary schools will be reviewed immediately and funding guaranteed to avoid disastrous consequences for the affected students; (7) Deputy Broughan — the need for the Minister to respond to the memorandum submitted by the Stardust Victims and Relatives Committee seeking a new commission of inquiry into the tragedy (8) Deputy Ferris — the pressure being placed on fishermen to go to sea in dangerous conditions due to the current regulatory system; (9) Deputy Gregory — the unacceptable cruelty to animals by the Ward Hunt, County Meath and the need to withdraw the licence from the hunt; (10) Deputy Durkan — the serious and ongoing issue of overcrowding on commuter trains to and from Sallins, Hazelhatch, Kilcock, Maynooth and Leixlip and the city whereby passengers more often than not have to remain standing for the entire journey with consequent health and safety implications and the need for the Minister to issue instructions to increase the frequency of the service and the capacity of the trains with enhanced feeder bus backup; and (11) Deputy Costello — the need for the Government to introduce a system of random searches of CIA operated aircraft landing at Irish airports to ensure Irish airports are not being used for rendition flights.

The matters raised by Deputies Broughan, Callanan, Deenihan and Gregory have been selected for discussion.