People including small children are living in overcrowded rooms, with no privacy or space for self-isolation. The spread of Covid19 is very high in congregated settings and the treatment of people seeking asylum is inhumane. This is a public health and human rights issue and urgent action is needed. People seeking asylum need to be in self-contained accommodation where families can live together and people do not have to share with non-family members.

The overcrowding on halting sites is widely recorded along with the stark health inequalities for Travellers in Ireland. The Traveller community and the grave statistics which reflect the reality of life and health for Travellers must be taken into consideration in government planning for the most vulnerable groups. If this is not done there is no way to prevent the spread of covid 19 and unnecessary deaths will occur. Deaths can be prevented the local authority have the responsibility and the powers to enable this and MUST act immediately. HSE staff are been redeployed across the country to focus on areas of priority and rightly so. However, this redeployment and investment in resources must also include the Traveller community. In areas where there are numbers of Traveller families living without access to supports such as primary health care programmes additional HSE resources must be allocated to provide basic information, support and assistance. One such area is Labre Park in Dublin. The oldest and one of the largest halting sites in the country. Home to almost 50 families and a population of 200 men, women and children with no primary health care programme and no supports provided by the local authority to address this escalating crisis. There is a disaster waiting to happen in overcrowded halting sites, prevent unnecessary deaths, provide the space and the basic human rights of water and sanitation NOW # Traveller Lives Matter

Both the Abortion Rights Campaign and the Government want to keep people safe during this emergency. It is in all of our interest to minimise the strain on our healthcare system and to prevent people who are not sick from coming into contact with those who are. Remote consultation is already in use in Ireland by, for example, VideoDoc and Spectrum Health, and more recently, by individual GPs as they adapt to the current crisis. Providing abortion consultations remotely has proven safe, effective, and acceptable in other jurisdictions. We urge the Minister for Health to clarify that an in-person visit is not required in order to satisfy the Act and put appropriate protocols in place. We urge the Minister for Justice to assure doctors they will not be prosecuted if they offer medical abortion remotely at this time. Sign the petition and let the Government know you support those who need to access abortion services, healthcare workers and all those working in the health sector.

Khangelani and his wife chane came to Ireland in 2016 along side his inlaws Chane was 8 months pregnant they ran away from South due to racist attacks Chane and khangelani are in an interacial marriage they experienced hate death threats they also ran away from culture practices that their daughter could face also their son They have since had a daughter and a son since being in Ireland There daughter is 3 and son is 2 they were both born in Ireland Ireland is the only home they know They are mixed race children and can be sold in South Africa They fear for there daughter who will be sold and made a sex slave There son will go through rituals which will kill him They proved this to department but was told no south Africans get refugee status The department has since denied them their kids are born here this is the only home they know they know no south African language The racist attacks on khangelani and chane are horrific one altercation ended with khangelani being stabbed Mixed races couples in South Africa are frowned upon The fear they have for their daughter south Africa currently has such a bad femecide problem A child is raped every 3 minutes according to statistics Chane has severe depression And PTSD and has been worrying about what will happen to her children Chane has done chairty work collecting for the women and children I'm ashbourne Khangelani has done his leaving certificate and wants to further his studies Please please minister consider the safety of the children

Mduduzi is a founding member of the Melting Pot Luck, which was established in early 2017. He is integral to our group and has been our chairperson since November 2019. The Melting Pot Luck wouldn't be what it is without Mduduzi. Together, we have organised multiple small and large-scale events which have brought the community of Galway and people living in Direct Provision together through food and music. Our group has helped to break down the barriers that separate people, building friendships and promoting intercultural understanding. Mduduzi is from Zimbabwe and has been living in Direct Provision in Galway for the last 3 years. Despite living in those challenging and limiting conditions he has successfully integrated in Galway and has become a key part of the community. Mduduzi embodies the spirit of what makes Galway great, and he works tirelessly to help improve things for people living here. He is an amazingly talented, positive, warm, hard-working and socially conscious individual and he has made a huge effort to integrate and engage with the community in Galway. As well as volunteering with The Melting Pot Luck for the past three years Mduduzi has been involved with numerous volunteer programs with organisations like Galway City Partnership (GCP) and Amnesty International, running educational workshops in schools and training sessions with professionals. He also developed a social enterprise initiative with The Melting Pot Luck, GCP and Tiny Traders market during summer 2019. He is actively involved in the Galway arts scene, DJing regularly with Galway African Diaspora at Áras na Gael. Mduduzi is also on the committee for the University of Sanctuary at NUIG where he studies Science. We are all absolutely shocked and devastated that our friend and chairperson of our group has been told he can’t stay in Ireland. Mduduzi deserves better than the situation he is now faced with. He deserves sanctuary, he deserves welcome, and above all, he deserves to make a home and build a future here in Ireland. This dream, and all the work he has done in the community is at risk of being destroyed if he is deported. TD Charlie Flanagan has the power to grant Mduduzi humanitarian leave to remain in Ireland, and we urge him to do so. We ask you to please sign this petition to support our campaign, and share it widely with your contacts. Thank you.

Theophilus Ndlovu, aka 'Touché', came to Ireland seeking asylum in July 2016 and has spent the last 3.5 years living in Direct Provision in Galway. As a talented spoken-word and hip-hop artist, Theo has made enormous contributions to the Irish community, performing at countless cultural and charitable events across the country. He is a founding member of the multicultural music project 'Atmos Collective', and has facilitated numerous music workshops in Galway - teaching, motivating and inspiring hundreds of young people along the way. He is an irreplaceable member of the collective, which was recently granted funding by Galway 2020 as part of their 'Small Towns Big Ideas' scheme, to host community music workshops in the city and county over the next 12 months. Atmos Collective and this incredible project simply could not and will not exist without him! Theo came to Ireland young and alone. He has talent, passion, and is doing his absolute best to give something positive back to Irish society. His ongoing creative output demonstrates that he is dedicated and well-integrated into the creative community. Impressively, it has all been of his own initiative, despite his challenging circumstances. Hardworking and with an infectious energy and positivity, he has been an outstanding role model in the community and an incredible asset to both Galway and Ireland. We cannot afford to lose him! Recently, Theo has wrestled with anxiety and depression, brought on by his time in Direct Provision. We have a humanitarian duty to support and protect those who have had to endure this inhumane and degrading asylum system. Despite all of this, Theo is now facing an imminent deportation order. Only Minister Charles Flanagan has the power to grant 'permission to remain' to Theo and prevent his deportation. PLEASE take the time to sign this petition and to email the Minister and the Taoiseach, at [email protected] and [email protected], pledging support to Theo and his future in Ireland – which has become his home. Contact [email protected] for more details or an email/letter template!

The failures of mothers and babies in the past in being excused on the grounds of ignorance. Future generations will never forgive this generation for a failure to hold TUSLA to account for it's incompetence to parents and children. TUSLA'S remit is very far reaching covering areas beyond child protection and welfare including domestic sexual and gender based violence services, retention of adoption records, early years services and education welfare. TUSLA is responsible for the most venerable members of our society, OUR CHILDREN,PAST AND PRESENT. Their failures will have lasting effects for many decades into the future. While there have been inquiries into some aspects of how TUSLA operates, there has never been a public inquiry into TUSLA as an overall body.

Its extremely important that farmers take the time to sighn this petition , as I feel its the first step and only step in rectifying the great imbalances that farmers are experiencing, when we as independent farmers elect our own representative to hold position as minister for agriculture, then we as a farming community can work towards resolving farmers issues re instating farmers rights equality something that is being rashioned at present, we can resolve the great imbalances being experienced

The Irish government has given a quarter of a BILLION euro to the IGB since 2001 . 16.8 million a year to fund a non charity that encourages drinking and gambling , kills dogs and gives nothing to the community. The IGB cannot support itself as a business and uses OUR MONEY where it should be spent on health care , the homeless, cancer research and many more genuine causes. 6000 plus young Greyhounds are killed each year because they cannot run fast enough for commercial use . Greyhounds are brutally killed with bolt gun in knackeries for as little as €8 or just shot and dumped in pits many found in mountain rural settings . Hundreds of dogs are killed in stadiums where they fall and are killed if they even break a toe as it’s not economical to keep . Each race track has a freezer for the many murdered dogs . Dogs are doped and young dogs often drop dead of a heart attack. Many heart attacks are caused by cocaine . Ireland is one of only a few archaic countries that still allow Coursing with live hares . Thousands of hares are caught each year fenced in and chased by two greyhounds who even if muzzled throw the hare around ,pin it to the ground and get broken up themselves in the process .all this they call entertainment. Ireland breeds 1000% more greyhounds than required for Ireland’s racing circuit to allow a large Poole if pups to choose from . Also approx 80%plus of all dogs raced on the UK are Irish such is our overbreeding . Many greyhounds when they can no longer race are sent to barbaric countries where there is no animal laws and are sent to stud or to breed in horrific conditions where they could end up when that use runs out : cooked alive and eaten . In Ireland Greyhounds are not even classified or run as a sport greyhound racing is under the ministry of agriculture and greyhounds are not classified as dogs but as “ Farm animal “ and are not seen as dogs but they are .

Growing anti-racism in this country must be tackled face on. Deputy Grealish represents a large population of African decent and his comments are unacceptable and perpetuate racism.

My name is Laura Angela I’m the chairwoman for Justice for all women & children this year I accepted a Irish Traveller pride award in intersectionality in which was presented by the amazing Catherine cordless. It’s so important as my mother is a survivor of a abusive industrial school. While there she was abused over who she and her mother was and was made to hate her ethnicity and faced very traumatic experiences of abuse. Her mother Angelina was sent to a laundry for 27 years and was renamed Angela. While there she was recommended a hysterectomy by the doctors. Instead the order used her up until her dying day and ignored the doctors recommendations for over a decade after it was made. My nan died of ovarian cancer if given the treatment she needed she could be here to tell you her story. Instead she lays in a mass grave in cork with 72 other women in which I have been visiting since being a small child. Angelina had three daughters. Her eldest daughter Margaret was 14 when she was out into Sunday wells Magdalene laundry run by the good shepherds in cork. When she left she left for Liverpool. She returned to cork to find her mother and headed straight to St. Vincent’s the laundry her mum was in. She was told that she should leave and never come back. She returned to liverpool and that coming Christmas committed suicide on a day for family, Christmas Day. Angelina’s youngest daughter Bridget was adopted. For 5 years my nan was refusing to sign adoption papers for Bridget while in the laundry. It was only when they used my mum Mary who was in the industrial school and said if she signed the papers she would be given visits by Mary who was in the industrial school and was made to fear her mother. Knowing that not many got the opportunity to even see their children again she took the deal and signed the papers. From there from the age of seven onwards my mum mary was made to visit her mum in the Magdalene laundry but it wasn’t the first time she would have entered those doors. In the 1960s a commission called the commission of itinerancy was taking place. Traveller children was being taken from their family’s and put into industrial schools. The women & children was taken and forced to work in institutions while the aim was to isolate the men on the camps in attempt to eradicate the whole population. Figures called the “cruelty men”” would attend camps on the side of the road and conduct inspections. My nan was in Tuam when my nan took to the side of the road with her latter and travelled to Middleton. A cruelty man approached the site and did a inspection. Although in reports all her children was deemed well nourished and cared for, my Nan had been labelled a “itinerant” she lied regarding being married as her children was illegitimate. But she was put into a county home and was found to be lying. She then escaped the county home with my mum Mary aged two and half. She was brought back by Garda and in the reports she states she was trying to get back to her family in Tuam which mentioned the name Patrick ward within. They didn’t tend to write down the fathers name but because of her attempted escape it gave us some direction as then through DNA and research we found out my mums grandfather (the father to my mum dad) was called a Patrick ward. But from there my mum and her mother was sent to the laundry while they waited for the child’s placement, a nun remembers the night my mum mary was ripped from Angelina in the Magdalene laundry and she was bundled in the car in the car park of it. My mum has been through the Ryan report, mcayleese report and is now facing the mother and baby home commission. During the Ryan report they was just looking at the abuse within the industrial schools so although my mothers statement spoke of her being brought up to the laundry and her mother. This was excluded this as they was claiming at the time these institutions was private. During the mcayleese report they just acknowledged the living working residents and didn’t even provide a minutes silence on the night to the dead my mum sat in the Dàil heartbroken. This meant that child residents/ visitors and their dead mothers was excluded from gaining justice. After the 2013 apology to just the living working residents. We applied to cork council for the exhumation of my nan. We was sent a response letter in 2014 stating the requirements of we would need to bare all costs and we would also need the sisters of charity permission. We have wrote many letters. Had a solicitor write letters and they have never responded in regards to providing of their permission. I have written a book in regards to my mother’s and nan story called The Tinker Menace; The diary of an Irish Traveller which gives a detailed account of our journey and which in detail also lays bare the cover up around the institutions and the effects it had on my family. I am starting this petition to show the order and government how much public support is behind the removal process of my nan and to force them to both take action as they are both responsible. It really means a lot to move my nan and rebury her in a dignified site in which isn’t associated with all the traumatic feelings that arise for my mum when she attends the mass grave. I personally feel due to the fact their was another Magdalene mass grave at another site in which they opened as they sold the land and found more bodies without death certificates - no Garda investigation was put in place they simply put death certificates in place. I think they fear history repeating itself. Please sign and share our petition as far as possible together let’s give the freedom my nan always deserved finally back and some form of justice. Thank you all, for more information regarding the campaign please visit our page: https://www.facebook.com/Justice4AllWomenAndChildren/

Mike Pence presides over a cruel and inhuman system of detention at the US - Mexico border. He's also anti LGBTQIA+ rights and he supports conversion therapy for gay and bisexual people. As a country, we have a duty to say no to treating him as an official guest, as his politics flies in the face of everything we stand for. We certainly shouldn't roll out the red carpet for him to visit.