This affects the sea and wildlife of Clew Bay plus people who swim and live nearby. Raw sewage has been flowing into the bay for decades - that need to stop.

With a capacity of 70,000 people, the Electric Picnic (EP) is Ireland's largest gathering of music & arts and it has established itself as one of the world's most unique festivals. However the growing environmental cost of hosting such a large-scale event needs to be addressed most notably with the increasing volume of tents abandoned each year. Plastic used to make these tents can take thousands of years to biodegrade. Tents should NOT be "Single Use Plastic Items" - they take up valuable space in landfill sites and are polluting the natural environment, having a significant impact on our oceans. In 2022 EP recorded a pre-tax profit of nearly €30 million and we would like to see some of this profit set aside to effectively deal with this plastic waste problem. We want to offer "Hope & Accountability" as a motivating force to current and future festival goers so the question goes from: “ It's a disgrace, what have we done? ” to one of “ What can we do better? ”.

The government buying the Conor pass on behalf of the people would ensure public access to the world-famous site for generations to come. The Conor Pass is a rich cultural and archeological area and has enormous potential for nature restoration. The purchasing and rewilding of this land would show that the Irish government is serious about restoring nature for the benefit of all of us. Leo Varadkar, Malcolm Noonan, and the government have a responsibility to respond to the biodiversity crisis and climate collapse. The restoration of land and ensuring that land is held for the benefit of all should be the primary goal of the government and buying this parcel of land would be a great step towards that.

The sale must be halted to provide a pause to consult stakeholders on the future of the site. The sale contains no conditions for the protection of the factory building and its preservation should be considered on the grounds of the social and architectural significance of the last Briquette factory in Ireland.

As the US dept of Energy points out......"Tires can make a big difference in the number of miles a driver gets to a tank of gas. In fact, 20% to 30% of a vehicle’s fuel consumption and 24% of road vehicle CO2 emissions are tire-related. Tires affect vehicle fuel efficiency primarily through rolling resistance....... "Under inflation also increases the rate of wear on tires and are estimated to cause as many as 10 to 25 percent of blowouts......... "A tire that is 20 percent underinflated can increase a vehicle’s fuel consumption by 10 percent. " "because it provides more resistance, causing your car to expend more effort to get going." https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/tires-and-fuel-economy People would be far more inclined to have their tyres checked if it was free and if someone were to do it for them. This was once normal procedure in garages across the country. This could see a huge drop in transport emissions which in the past year saw a 6% rise. We can cut emissions very easily if the will is there. Tyres need to be checked at least once a month for optimum performance. Every sector needs to strive for optimum performance in reducing emissions. Transport can easily reduce theirs with this small and effective action. It is time fossil fuel merchants were asked to do their bit to reduce emissions.

It has been known, since at least as far back as 1998, to Cork County Council, and their successor organisations responsible for Water Services, Irish Water, and Uisce Éireann, that untreated sewage has been escaping from a failed sewage treatment system into a public park in the village of Shannonvale, Clonakilty, County Cork. This area, which serves as the village's sole public recreation space, is situated on the north bank of the River Argideen, upstream from the point where Uisce Éireann extracts drinking water for the entire Clonakilty municipal water supply. Despite the evident threats to public health, this issue has persisted for over 25 years, since it was first reported to Cork County Council.

Access to water is a human right. We are without safe water for far too long. Too vulnerable people in our communities are not able to boil or secure a regular supply of safe water to use. Uisce Éireann need to supply us with safe water and fast track fixing the problem

Over the past few years there have been a soaring number of planning applications across the Island of Ireland to build very large “Solar Energy Farms” covering thousands of acres of agricultural land, with some in high amenity areas. Such projects involve taking over productive food-growing fields with hundreds of thousands of tall solar panels in order to generate “green” electricity for periods typically 35- 40 years. During this period the farms are unable to grow any food crops or raise animals. Only a few exceptions graze sheep, though this is going out of fashion with the developers. The developers usually offer to “improve the local biodiversity” or similar “green” sounding platitudes but there are no guarantees that the existing wildlife will not be permanently impacted or that the land will be even used for grazing. Solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels produce electricity from sunlight, but are very inefficient in producing energy compared to their land greed. Offshore wind power and hydroelectric systems, along with nuclear generation are significantly more efficient for their land footprint and have been chosen by the Government as the primary large-scale routes for energy investment towards our net zero goals. Nevertheless, solar developers are keen to cash in on the publicity of the net zero targets whilst they still can, removing valuable food producing land in the process. Solar panels on individual homes, offices, public buildings, and over car parks can and do contribute to offsetting electricity used in those buildings. The ISEA issued a report in 2022 showing that over 1.3 million homes in Ireland have roof space for solar panels which equates to 13GW capacity meeting 19% of renewable energy targets. County level findings also show that using maximum theoretical potential on each roof that up to 38% of Westmeath’s residential energy demands would be met by solar PV in homes. (https://www.irishsolarenergy.org/_files/ugd/dcb342_31fe5681d3fd4f56b322141c9886af5c.pdf) Energy sent over the transmission network is lost the further it travels, contributing to energy waste. Like a bucket of water with a small hole in the bottom. But this is reduced to almost no loss when installed on a rooftop and used by the building. These industrial solar energy plants, if needed at all, should be located on previously developed “brown field” sites and rooftops, not on valuable agricultural land. And certainly not adjacent to communities and in areas of high scenic and historic beauty, where they will destroy the public amenity and visual openness of the local countryside. Over the coming decades as we face up to the challenges of Climate Change, which is predicted to reduce food yields across the globe, we need to be able to produce enough food for ourselves. It is predicted that we will need to produce more food due to increasing populations. We need to be able to feed sustainably and covering viable agricultural land with solar “farms” is NOT the way to achieve this. It is time to call on the Government to end the development of large-scale Solar Energy “Farms” on prime agricultural land and take other measures to realise the benefits of solar pv such as making it mandatory for a minimum of 50% of all new builds to include rooftop solar power or giving communities the opportunity to participate in community owned projects like those set out in RESS 3 and supported by SEAI. If this gets approved it sets a dangerous precedent and there are more developments (similar in size) in the pipeline taking up large quantities of our prime arable land. If you care about the destruction of our countryside and wildlife (protected and unprotected) in our beautiful lake county then please sign and share for others to sign. We need to stop this now! Imagine acres and acres of glass and metal monstrosities where there once was crops, birdsong and animals grazing. Please Don’t let our Lake county become a Solar County.

Clare County Council has developed a strategy to develop Ennis and set up a company, Ennis 2040 DAC, to implement it. The strategy aims to enable Ennis to prosper as a vibrant civic, commercial, cultural and residential centre. We support these aims but NOT the project they are starting on now - a multi-storey commercial block on Abbey Street car park and a later project for two commercial blocks on Parnell Street car park. We ask Clare County Council to stop the plan to build on our riverside car parks because: • It removes car parking that our businesses and mobility impaired people need – a vibrant town needs vibrant businesses • It is a speculative development for high cost office and large retail that could end up as a white elephant in a prime location • It hands valuable open public space to private interests, space that is ideal place for our community to gather and enjoy river and town views • This generic development in the heart of the town could destroy what people love about Ennis - a medieval town with narrow, winding streets and laneways with the beautiful river Fergus meandering through it We ask Clare County Council not to transfer this public property to Ennis 2040 DAC, a company that can sell it on without consent by the county council or councillors. There are many vacant sites that exist in Ennis that are ideal for regeneration and development. We ask Clare County Council and Ennis 2040 DAC to focus on these. Do you want large private buildings on our riverside car parks? If not, please sign our petition and share it with others who also want to stop this madness. You can also sign this petition in person at many of the businesses in Ennis Town Save Ennis Town is a group drawn from the general public including community, business, retail and political representatives. It formed after a public meeting on 4th May 2023 in the Temple Gate Hotel with over 200 people, all concerned about elements of the Ennis 2040 plans. We aim to have constructive engagement with Ennis 2040 DAC and develop a plan that will enhance our town for everyone.

Trees are essential to our existence. They provide us with oxygen, reduce carbon and give life to the world's wildlife. Saving our trees will reduce greenhouse gases, protect our wildlife and bees, and make sure our environment and communities can be enjoyed by future generations.

Keem bay is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world but despite that there is no plan for sustainable tourism. This is putting Keem at risk. There should be no campfires allowed as they are destroying the land and risking a large fire taking off in the area. Also, there should be staff employed to enforce this and clean up the beach after every day. Yes, it would be perfect if people cleared away their own rubbish but that doesn’t happen so the council needs to come up with a plan. Keem brings in thousands of tourists to Mayo every year and yet there is no effort to protect it from the impact of that many people lighting fires and leaving rubbish.

If we don't speak out, nothing will change. The Earth is now on a trajectory towards total ecosystem collapse. How far along that trajectory it goes depends on us, on the actions we take. Ireland is failing miserably at cutting it's carbon emissions and protecting its environment. It beggars belief that that the native tree stocks in our hedgerows are not currently being safeguarded, and are allowed to be decimated at a such a rate. It's time to take a stand, join me.