Regina Doherty, MEP

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total number of special needs teachers currently available throughout County Kildare...

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent, if any to which a deficit in student accommodation has been identified within the catchment area within the various third level institutions...

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which she has received submissions from the various primary school authorities...

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her willingness to continue her support for smaller urban or rural schools with a denominational ethos...

To ask the Minister for Finance if persons renting out a room or rooms in their home through Airbnb are eligible to Rent-A-Room Relief; and if he will make a statement on the matter. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to extend Rent-A-Room Relief to persons renting out a room or rooms in their home through Airbnb; and if he will make a statement on the matter?

Imagine how it must feel to be separated from your family, forced to flee your home and then find yourself living in a tent, among strangers, vulnerable to sexual violence. Imagine giving birth in these unsafe and unhygienic circumstances, or caring for a newborn baby, or simply trying to keep yourself clean and healthy so that you can get on with the mammoth task of rebuilding your life, your home, your community.

Fine Gael TD for Cork South West, Jim Daly, has received confirmation from the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Alan Kelly TD, that he will clarify any measures to be applied to the Building Control Regulations in the coming weeks. Minister Kelly also confirmed to Deputy Daly that local councils will be given powers to reduce development charges on existing planning permissions to make them more viable to go to construction.

Fine Gael TD for Meath West, Ray Butler, has welcomed the confirmation from the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar TD that children under 18 with a cancer diagnosis will be issued with a medical card for five years.

“A structured support package and advocate is needed for people who developed narcolepsy as a result of receiving the swine flu vaccine in 2009 and 2010” says Cork East Fine Gael TD, David Stanton. National figures show that 74 young people and children developed the condition after they received the Pandemrix vaccine.

Fine Gael TD for Laois/Offaly, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, has said that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for June of 9.7% is very encouraging and that the trend of decreasing unemployment should continue with the new Midlands Action Plan for Jobs.