In Ireland up to 1,000 children a year are being forced to stay at home because they cannot get a school place. Overwhelmingly, it is children with special educational needs (SEN) - often those with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) - who are worst hit. Every child and young person with special educational, health and care needs to have the extra support and interventions which will help the child or young person to achieve what they want to in their life. We propose a viable solution for this, an Education, Health & Care (EHC) plan to be the legal and statutory right for every child or young person in Ireland, whose special educational needs require more help than would normally be provided in a mainstream education setting (a college, school, nursery). Annual review of the plan The plan will be reviewed at least once a year. At the end of the review the local authority may make changes to the plan, end it or leave it unchanged. How long will the plan last? The plan will remain in place until your child leaves education or the local council decides that your child no longer needs the plan to help them in their education. If you move to another local council the plan will be transferred. How will the benefits of the EHCp be reinforced? A specialist Tribunal will be in place (which is essentially a no costs jurisdiction) where parents and young persons can challenge the contents of a plan If provision in a plan is not provided, the Local Council (who maintain all such documents) can be challenged by way of Judicial Review or a referral to the Local Government Ombudsman. Once a petition has been published, it will be open to signatures for six months. * At 10,000 signatures, the government will formally respond. * At 100,000 signatures, the request will be considered by the Petitions Committee for debate in Dail. PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION AND SUPPORT EVERY CHILD AND YOUNG PERSON IN IRELAND TO HAVE THE LEGAL AND STATUTORY RIGHT TO AN EDUCATIONAL, HEALTH AND CARE PLAN.

There are already discussions happening with the HSE on harm reduction and how organisers and promoters of these large gigs and festivals should be given options to keep people safe by providing on site testing kits and areas for people to test drugs they come in contact with. But it's not happening quick enough. Young people are dying. We need a change of legislation now to allow these harm reduction measures and on site testing kits to become a reality in Ireland. Whatever your opinion is on why people experiment with mind alternating substances, people will continue to do it and all of the best research around the world points to allowing harm reduction practices and providing reliable information as being the best approach for people who decide to take drugs. It is terrible that young people in the prime of their lives have to die because of making an uninformed choice. If the young man in Cork, who died after taking a substance at a festival had of known what exactly was in the substance he took, would he have taken it? Where testing areas are provided at festivals, many people dump their drugs when they discover it is not what they thought. They decide not to take a gamble on the unknown. But this is exactly what is happening to our young people every time they make an uninformed choice on drugs and take a gamble with their own lives. It's not good enough in this day and age and it shouldn't be allowed to continue. We need to be bold and tackle this growing concern for safety of our young people head on. Please support this campaign for greater awareness and safety around drugs so no more young people have to lose their lives. Sign and share as widely as you can. Thank you Jenny File photograph: Cyril Byrne / The Irish Times

There are 22 children in the Killenagh/Ballygarrett area seeking school transport to Creagh College in Gorey, approximately 16km away. Half of the parents in our group have already built their lives around the fact that the children can be brought to Creagh College by the School Transport system. Some of these children are going into 6th year. This is an additional stress on an already stressful year for any student. We’ve looked into private busses and it is simply not affordable at €40-€50 per week per child. Some families have 3 children in the school and most of us will have multiple children over the coming years. We have been advised that €4m would solve this situation nationally. We need a solution locally in two weeks. We need action NOW!! #22forcreaghbus

The Department of Education funds extra summer schooling for all students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and children with severe or profound intellectual disabilities. However, children with Down syndrome who have a mild or moderate learning disability are not included. Children with Down syndrome need the additional support during the Summer months so they can reach their full potential.

Clondalkin is over 1,000 years old and is attracting more and more visitors to view its heritage. In this regard the proposed nursing home is wholly inappropriate. The four storey building would block the view of the limestone convent while the proposed brick finish is not at all in keeping with local architecture. In addition an antique stone wall on Convent Rd., would be knocked not to mention the additional traffic that would ensue in an already gridlocked village. The grounds and cloisters of the convent include an endangered species of bird, the Swift, which would be threatened by the construction. Such a development would detrimentally affect the historic character of Clondalkin and one of its most important heritage sites.

As a fellow human, please support this petition to allow people of Kashmir to be heard and justice served

Children in LGBT families are currently in limbo. Those being raised by two parents only have a legal relationship with one. They are a legal stranger to the other. They are denied all the protections afforded by the protection of their relationship with their non-biological parent. I am one of those parents. I cannot consent to medical treatment for my little son Finn. I cannot pick him up from crèche or school without the consent of my wife. If anything happens my wife, my child is taken into care as I am a legal stranger to him. This is discrimination. Minister Harris and his colleagues show up to pride for the positive PR while they put the families this event represents to the bottom of the pile. Protect our families now. No more delays! Great to have some media outlets highlighting the issue our families face. East Coast FM https://www.eastcoast.fm/podcasts2/podcasts/the-morning-show/episode/same-sex-parents/ Radio One - Morning Ireland https://twitter.com/morningireland/status/1158293378351677440?s=19

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DISTRESSED BORROWERS ARE CURRENTLY AFFECTED WITH A FURTHER 100,000-PLUS COMING DOWN THE TRACKS, NOW BEING DESCRIBED BY THE CENTRAL BANK AS NPE’S (NON-PERFORMING EXPOSURES)

Bird Habitat is the last remaining natural area in Ennis town, and it is the center of attraction for our local community. The river bend in the center of town hosts various Birds, including; the Canadian geese and Greylag goose that have mixed with the Local Domestic goose, they are an affectionately viewed by us 'Ennis-eans' and passers by enjoy the entertaining display of the Mute Swans, Herons and Mallard ducks. We want our appreciation of nature as an inheritance for our future generation. Not only that, the Birds on the river Fergus enhance town's tourists attraction and are a center of interest for local business. Feeding the birds are a relaxing activity from the stress, and a quite time out for kids and parents on their way to and from the buzz of life.

This is very important as lots of children have been alienated from their grandparents. Once these children turn 18 they are on their own. They will need full support from all extended family

When construction of the new harbour at Greystones, Co Wicklow, began, all harbour users, including the traditional fishermen and their boats, had their moorings and other facilities removed while the project was being built. When the harbour was complete, the other users such as leisure clubs were provided with full facilities including new clubhouses, boat yards, storage and so forth. But the fishermen and their boats were excluded. This was despite the promises and guarantees we were given before we left in 2008 and on many occasions since, and in spite of the fact that provision of facilities to commercial fishers was included in the planning approval granted by Bord Pleanala. In 2014, Wicklow County Council issued harbour by-laws which effectively excluded the fishing fleet. The by-laws give a nod to mooring rights but, by imposing other conditions that are impossible to meet, effectively barred the fishing fleet from Greystones Harbour and transformed this traditional community harbour into a purely leisure boating facility. We, the fishing families of Greystones, do not accept this expulsion and have launched our new campaign to ensure that we can return from ten years of exile to our home port, with full rights to moor, land our catch, store bait and other equipment, and generally carry on our trade as we and our predecessors have traditionally done in Greystones for hundreds of years.

 For more than ten years now, we have had to moor at Dun Laoghaire, with huge disruption to our family and social lives. We have to drive to Dun Laoghaire each morning, drive our boats back to our traditional fishing grounds near our home port, then land our catch at Dun Laoghaire before we ready our boats for the next day and FINALLY drive home to Greystones, usually well after eight in the evening after a pre-dawn start. Family life and time with our children have both suffered as a result. And being exiled to Dun Laoghaire adds €150 each week in fuel costs alone. Please sign this petition, which will be presented to the Minister for the Environment, the Minister for the Marine, and to the chief executive of Wicklow County Council. Your support can help ensure that we can come home at last, and that our skippers and crew can resume a normal existence. We now must negotiate with Wicklow County Council, and every person stepping forward to support our cause will influence how they deal with us and bring a positive outcome closer. Bring the boats home!

The Irish sex education curriculum needs to be objective, factual and inclusive and taught without the barrier of school ethos. Support the Oireachtas Education Committee and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessments recommendations to reform the current sex education curriculum. It is imperative that: - Young people grow up with the right information in order to make informed decisions about their own sexuality and relationships. - Young people grow up understanding consent, especially in the #MeToo era and at a time when there remains a high prevalence of sexual assault, harassment and violence. - Young people grow up inclusive of people's sexual orientation, gender identity and the spectrum thereof, at a time when LGBT students still face high amounts of homophobic and transphobic related bullying.