Big business are producing more, not less emissions and are making the climate crisis worse. Government decisions are letting them off the hook and pushing the burden for the climate crisis on to regular people, not the corporations who drive it.

Julian Assange is a political prisoner simply because he exposed US military and other war crimes, human rights abuses and corruption in the futile US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His continued incarceration in Belmarsh Prison and his threatened extradition to the US, is a threat not only to him but to all journalists, editors and publishers, to the cause of investigative journalism, to press freedom and to freedom of speech generally. The appeal hearing brought by the US Government against the decision by a British court not to extradite Julian to the US will be held on 27 & 28 October. If he is extradited he faces a prison sentence of up to 175 years. There are campaigns happening around the world to get him released. Will you join the campaign here in Ireland? The open letter to Simon Coveney has been endorsed so far by Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Christy Moore, Sinéad Cusack, Stephen Rea, Eamonn Mc Cann, Dr. Harry Browne, Raymond Deane, Trevor Joyce, John F. Deane, Honor Heffernan, Dr. Ronit Lentin, Prof. Ray Kinsella and elected politicians Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Thomas Pringle. Here is the link to the full letter - http://irishantiwar.org/node/2786

Toilets are an important public amenity which serve our most basic bodily functions. Access to public toilets isn't just a matter of convenience, it's a matter of dignity and social equality. Mayo's beaches are visited and used all year round, by a wide variety of people, engaged in a multitude of activities, and in all types of weather. People do not stop using the beaches during the Winter. In fact, for many people, the quieter Winter months are a more enjoyable time to visit the beach than during the peak Summer period. Why, then, does Mayo County Council deny access to public toilets at our beaches for half the year? In early October the toilets are locked up, the public bins are removed, and beach users are left without these basic facilities until the following April or May. For some people, access to a public toilet is simply about convenience - it's not necessarily a deal-breaker - but for many more people, a public toilet can be a determining factor in whether they visit a public amenity such as a beach. Women, disabled people, older people, people with children, and many others in our society are unfairly impacted by a lack of public toilets. Where these facilities exist, such as at our beaches, they should be accessible all year round. To be frank, the people least affected by the lack of public toilets are non-disabled men, who can pretty much pee wherever they like (and who don't have a menstrual cycle). For everyone else, if there's no public toilet available, there's a calculation to be made: How long can I spend in this place before I'll need to pee? Can I visit at all? Should I risk my dignity, and potentially my personal safety, by squatting somewhere out-of-the-way just to pee? By denying these facilities for half the year, Mayo County Council is effectively closing the beaches to a broad section of our society, and this is not equitable or acceptable. We call on Mayo County Council to immediately reopen the public toilets at all our beaches, and to keep these essential facilities open all year round.

As customers of Dunnes Stores we are calling on the company to make their worker’s 10% Covid-19 premium and 20% staff discount permanent. Over the last 18 months workers in retail have been on the frontlines and helped keep food on our tables. They risked their health and their lives. Dunnes workers haven’t had a pay increase since 2019. The temporary Covid-19 premium doesn’t count when it comes to pensions or holidays. It’s time the company made the 10% premium and 20% staff discount permanent as a reward for the sacrifices their workers made on the frontlines during the pandemic. *Working in Dunnes Stores and not already a Union member? Join Mandate Trade Union today at www.joinmandate.ie.

82% of the Irish people support neutrality in all its aspects.

People who work night hours are paying huge amounts in taxi fares in order to keep themselves safe travelling to and from work or taking risks around their safety if they can't afford to do that. Women and other people are at great risk of violence if they cannot access safe and affordable travel at night. Night transport is a vital part of the night time economy which has been hit hard the last two years and this will be another barrier in people being able to enjoy the cities offerings at night. Public transport is a vital cog in our efforts to reduce our carbon emissions, reducing the need for cars to be on the road. We're call on the Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to reinstate the Nitelink now.

Children deserve both parents to be with them when they are at their most vulnerable. Parents have an important role in the recovery of a sick child in hospital. It's an exhausting role with monitoring and comforting the child 24/7. It's extremely difficult to do single handedly. Simple tasks like a parent needing to go to the bathroom or find food aren't possible when only one parent can be with the child at any one time. A sick child is scared and doesnt want a parent to leave for a second or may only sleep on the parent. Parents are filling a role as carers in the hospital and they deserve and are entitled to support of their partners/childs other parent to help in this extremely distressing time. Hospital experiences even when surgical outcome is a success are extremely traumatic on both parents and the child. I can't even imagine how parents are dealing with bad news while on their own. On October 22nd Ireland is basically reopening. You can go clubbing again but 2 vaccinated parents of a sick child can't be with the child together. Please can you help us raise this issue for the sake of all those sick children and parents of sick children. If you have any experiences you would like to share to help others understand, please do.

We need your support: Please sign the petition below! Finding it hard to sleep at night with light glare from street lighting coming into your bedroom? The County Council are going to be upgrading the current street lights in Cloughjordan village and will soon consult with the local community on the type of new lighting arrangements to install. This is your chance to have the kind of lighting you really want installed in your village. We aim to submit a letter to the County Council on behalf of people in the local community, to request that the Council: - Install lights with a warm (Amber) colour temperature with an upper limit of (no more than) 2700 kelvin. - Install light shields or hooded lights with more focused lighting, (thereby improving security by reducing glare through targeted lighting and reducing the impact of light pollution). Why are we making the above request? There is an opportunity here for Cloughjordan village to get smart, modern, high standard, well-designed lighting installed that reduces glare into our houses and bedrooms and yet still keeps our streets safe at night. The right kind of well-designed lighting can help reduce light pollution, helping to protect our health and that of the environment. The upper brightness limit we are asking for will be similar to the existing brightness level of the current sodium lighting on the main street but will have a softer effect as the new lighting will be LED, where 2700 kelvin is on the warmer scale of lighting. Also, if the lights are shielded, as we are requesting, the light is targeted to the ground where it is needed, and doesn’t get wasted in glare. This has been shown to improve security by eliminating the excessive glare that often ‘blinds’ people looking into overly bright street lighting. The truth is that better design equals better and safer lighting. Why be concerned about light pollution? Light pollution is Harmful for our health: Current scientific studies suggest that artificial light at night negatively affects human health by increasing our risks for sleep disorders, depression, diabetes and more. It is proven that artificial lights directly interrupt our circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions whilst we sleep: the sleep-wake cycle. Some of these processes include brain wave patterns, hormone production, cell regulation, and other biologic activities. Disruption of the circadian clock is known to have a significant correlation to several medical disorders in humans including depression, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Light pollution is harmful to nature: Plants and Animals depend on earth’s daily light and dark cycle to govern life-sustaining behaviours. For hundreds of millions of years, the web of life on earth has been dependent on day and night, light and dark. Research shows that artificial light at night has adverse and even deadly effects on many species. Researchers have already identified harmful impacts on a huge array of species including bats, insects, plants, fish, turtles, marine corals and even primates. Overlighting wastes energy we can’t afford to waste: It is estimated that at least 20% of light is wasted by unshielded and/or poorly aimed outdoor lighting which is about 3 billion euros per years’ worth of energy lost in sky glow. As much as 50% of outdoor lighting globally is wasted, which increases greenhouse gas emissions, contributes to climate change, and renders us all energy-dependent. To offset all that carbon dioxide, we’d have to plant about 875 million trees annually!

Farmland birds are disappearing. We're losing our bees, plants, beautiful wildflowers. Agriculture intensification is wiping them out. Ensuring that Ireland's Common Agriculture Policy Strategic Plan does the minimum for biodiversity is critical to save them. We're running out of time to save wildlife. Please sign.

CETA is a proposed trade deal between the EU and Canada. Buried in the smaller print there is the creation of a hugely problematic new court (ICS) that will override our current courts. But CETA is a lot more than a trade deal - it’s a dangerous corporate power grab that gives multinational corporations extraordinary powers to sue us for millions of euros in shady tribunals if they believe our local and national government policies have put our interests ahead of their expected profits. For example, if CETA were to be implemented and the government enacts limits on rent, as Ireland's largest private landlord (often referred to as a 'Vulture Fund') is Canadian - Ires Reit - they could sue the state to make up for any loss of profit to the Canadian company. If we bring in more climate laws or regulation to work towards addressing some of the causes of climate crisis - companies can sue is if they think the laws will affect their profits too. Governments have been sued in other countries who have introduced these new types of courts. This new court system, that supersedes and operates outside our own court system, would lead an already corporate-friendly government further down the road of putting business profits above the needs of Irish people and make secure, sustainable and affordable homes more out of reach. Once CETA is ratified, it allows investors to go straight to these special tribunals and sideline domestic courts and those of the European Union. Investor court decisions cannot be challenged by either the State or the EU - this is the equivalent of handing corporations a blank cheque! We must stand against this corporate takeover that will risk our efforts of addressing the climate and housing crises. For more info on CETA ICS, check out this fact checker: https://comhlamh.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/CETA-ICS-Fact-Checker.pdf Image source: Avaaz

This is a patient led campaign for radical change to the structure, resourcing and delivery of healthcare in Ireland. We are all patients, this effects everyone of us in this country. Our health system is broken, it is no longer holding itself together. Hospital waiting lists have almost hit 1million. There are 700 (1/5) consultant vacancies unfilled in Ireland. There are many reasons for this situation: the current contract for consultants, procedures being cancelled, investment required for additional bed capacity across hospitals. GP patient lists are full. 30% of GPs (over 1000 GPs) will retire in the next 2 to 3 years. There is no strategy for replacing them. Tens of thousands of citizens already do not have access to a GP. This is putting strain on emergency departments, out of hours services and most importantly not giving people the level of care & continuity of care they require. Emergency departments & hospitals are writing to GPs to advise they do not have capacity to take referrals. These patients bounce back to GPs to manage their illness while they wait. Patients with private healthcare have some access to private out of hours and ED clinics which provide limited services if your insurance covers what you need. Ultimately as more GPs retire these private services will also become strained. The band aids of OOHS , ED & private clinics are not a replacement for Primary care services. They do not provide the continuity of care that patients are best served by. We are all affected by this healthcare crisis. We need to come together as one voice to support an all party initiative: Sláintecare. This will transform healthcare in Ireland and benefit generations to come. I urge you to support, share, discuss, engage with this campaign. Thank you, Patientrevolution.ie

Over the last few years Dublin has lost a number of irreplaceable cultural spaces and hubs. The demolition of The Cobblestone pub will add to the city's cultural demise and add another soulless hotel to the Smithfield area.