Brendan Howlin (Wexford, 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 Broughan - the urgent need for the Minister to fully report to the Dáil on why cutbacks of up to 30% in funding have been sanctioned in 2010 for sphere 17 and RASP programmes in Dublin 17, which provide essential community programmes including educational, health, art, drug outreach and counselling programmes and support for the local travelling community, given the appalling effect these cutbacks will have on the local north Coolock communities and to ask the Minister to indicate whether the Government is planning to end completely funding for these vital programmes in 2011 and if he will make a statement on the matter; (2) Deputy Burton - in light of the recent acknowledgement by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform that women and young girls were routinely committed by order of the courts and other mechanisms to institutions and homes run by religious orders, known as Magdalene laundries, to ask whether the Minister will make a statement and outline the position in respect of files and records held by Departments, if these files will be released and what the Minister proposes to do in respect of this matter and the proposals made by the Justice for Magdalene Group; (3) Deputy Feighan - to ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will expedite the provision of the new school in Ballinamore, County Leitrim, due to the fact that the current school, Mean Scoil Fatima, has been severely damaged by fire and whether he will provide suitable accommodation in the interim for the students as a matter of urgency; (4) Deputy McCormack - the proposals for deciding the preferred corridor for the construction of the new R336 road from Barna to Rosamhíl, County Galway; (5) Deputies Creed, Enright and Deenihan - the pension entitlements of farm spouses; (6) Deputy Shatter - the suspension of negotiations with Vietnam on a bilateral adoption agreement; (7) Deputy Ferris - the ongoing difficulties faced by staff and patients and Kerry General Hospital; (8) Deputy Tom Hayes - in light of very serious problems with the N24, to ask the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government to respond to a request by South Tipperary County Council to his Department for special funding; (9) Deputy Costello - the need for the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to ensure that a national strategy be prepared to deal with the increasing crisis in the supply of drinking water; (10) Deputy Bannon - the need for the Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government to update this House as to when he will be implementing and funding the river basin management plan for the Shannon river basin district, which he signed in October 2009; (11) Deputies Breen, Joe Carey, Doyle, Kehoe and Timmins - the provision of additional funding to local authorities in respect of road maintenance following the recent bad weather; (12) Deputy O'Donnell - to call on the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Coughlan, to immediately implement and resource the recommendations of the mid-west jobs taskforce report, which she established, and to ask her plans for the disbursement of funds for redundant workers under the European Globalisation Fund; (13) Deputy Hogan - the proposals to deal with the fallout from the severe weather crisis for communities and the allocation of financial resources to achieve the early implementation of those plans and to ask whether a statement will be made on the matter; (14) Deputy Creighton - the urgent need for an investigation by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government into the ongoing water crisis in Dublin, and the need for emergency funding to be provided for the repair and maintenance of water infrastructure; (15) Deputy Coonan - to raise with the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Moloney, the provision of mental health services in north Tipperary and to ask the proposals his Department have made for the delivery of mental health services, both acute and community-based, following HSE proposals to close St. Michael's unit in Clonmel, which currently provides acute psychiatric services for both north and south Tipperary, and whether his Department plans to provide capital funding for proposed high dependency psychiatric units in north Tipperary; (16) Deputy Clune - the need to regulate the sale of certain products in head shops in Ireland; (17) Deputy Mattie McGrath - the proposed transfer of acute services from St. Michael's psychiatric hospital in Clonmel to Kilkenny; and (18) Deputy McHugh - the need for the Minister for Finance to disclose all new capital projects gone to tender that will begin this year across all Departments, all new capital projects gone to tender that were due to start this year across all Departments but are not now proceeding and all capital projects that are in the middle of construction at present, and to comment on the importance of such projects in getting capital flowing into banks and around the economy.

The matters raised by Deputies Shatter, Breen, Joe Carey, Doyle, Kehoe, Timmins, Creed, Enright and Deenihan have been selected for discussion.