It's a very dangerous road and pupils are risking every time they need to cross the road going to school or coming back home. Image source: https://tinyurl.com/mrxws8n9

Schools open this week but thousands of students have been left stranded - because the Dept of Education has failed to organise enough buses. Norma Foley is spinning a story that this is a new problem - but we all know that every year there are never enough school bus places for everyone who needs them. Parents are scrambling to find ways to get their children to school on time. Many will be forced to take time off work, pay for taxis, juggle already stressful days. We need to make sure school children can get to school.

Junk food marketing directed at children is rampant in Ireland. It is fuelling the obesity crisis that is causing immeasurable damage to their health. The State’s own research says that 85,000 of this generation of children on the island of Ireland will die prematurely as a result. But the health and wellbeing of every child is threatened by an advertised diet that encourages poor nutrition and is damaging over time. Children as young as eight are already presenting in large numbers with high blood pressure and teenagers with a cardiovascular age of people in their 60s. It’s almost a decade since the State restricted broadcast advertising of junk food because of its detrimental impact on young people’s health. But it has failed abysmally to effectively regulate online junk food marketing that is more personalised, engaging, effective and therefore far more damaging. Multinational brands have achieved a wholly inappropriate proximity to our children, pestering them relentlessly through their smartphones and behind their parents’ backs. It’s not just an online problem. Wherever children are, junk food advertising confronts them: on television, on billboards and buses particularly near schools, in shops and supermarkets, in sportsgrounds, school campuses, cinemas, through sponsorships of children’s events, on the jerseys of their sports heroes and through promotions by music stars. There is no escape. If you agree this is wrong, please sign and share our petition today.

The phrase ‘conversion therapy,’ brings to mind harmful efforts to ‘cure’ gay, trans and other queer people… Now imagine similar coercion and trauma were inflicted on Neurodivergent people - Autistics, People with Down Syndrome, People with Intellectual Disabilities and others… You don’t need to imagine. (1) It’s real, it’s been going on for 60 years, and it is happening right now across Ireland in schools, in adult and child services, and in peoples’ homes. How could this be? Is this legal? Yes, it’s legal… It is the go-to ‘therapy’ for many Neurodivergent people of all ages to make us appear ‘normal,’ taught to psychologists and psychiatrists, social care workers, SNAs, and special ed. teachers. That is why we need your support. Behaviourist conversion methods hide behind a plethora of credible-sounding names - Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), Positive Behavioural Support (PBS), Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention (EIBI), Social Skills Training, PECS, ‘behavioural plans,’ and others. They are so ingrained into the practice of Irish professionals that many are oblivious to the harm. It’s just ‘what you do’ for ‘those people.’ We are ‘those people,’ and we’re telling you: this is doing us real lasting harm. Almost half (46%) of those subjected to ABA display PTSD symptoms.(2) This is why our communities oppose all such ‘therapies,’ including the so-called ‘gentle ABA.’ All variants assume we are defective humans who must be shamed and bribed to mimic ‘normal.’ All it really does is teach us to silently suffer the trauma of living a lie. The UN agrees: “Autistic persons are particularly exposed to professional approaches and medical practices which are unacceptable from a human rights point of view. Such practices … violate their basic rights, undermine their dignity, and go against scientific evidence.”(3) Behaviourist conversion methods ignore our human rights. They do us terrible harm. They don’t work. We do not consent. This has to stop. Now. And yet it continues. Ireland is even hosting an international ABA conference in September,(4) possible only because this kind of conversion ‘therapy’ remains legal here. Prioritising a diversity of Neurodivergent voices in the upcoming Autism Innovation Strategy as per UNCRPD(5) may help, but will not secure our safety in law. Therefore, we call on Minister Rabbitte to ensure Neurodivergent citizens are protected from further harm by banning all behavioural interventions in this state. To find out more about behaviourist conversion, the harm it causes, and further steps you can take to help, follow the links below Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084052330540 Twitter: tbc Follow similar campaigns internationally: [links]: https://twitter.com/A4AOntario/status/1548669666066833408?s=20&t=lDtix0HmixgWn3sY0v72yw https://autcollab.org/aba https://twitter.com/ekverstania/status/1532818556693389312?s=20&t=2xKe2Lr09vMYcBrfw0mHHw https://www.facebook.com/BetterWaysThanABA/ https://www.facebook.com/endseclusion/ #BanABA #SayNoToABA #BetterWaysThanABA #StopTheShock ______________________________________________________ 1. Ole Ivar Løvaas: Originator of ABA & Gay Conversion methods https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/03/man-behind-ex-gay-conversion-therapy-started-trying-make-autistic-children-normal/ 2. Kupferstein, H. (2018), "Evidence of increased PTSD symptoms in autistics exposed to applied behavior analysis", Advances in Autism, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-08-2017-0016 or https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AIA-08-2017-0016/full/html 3. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2015 Special Report: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2015/04/discrimination-against-autistic-persons-rule-rather-exception-un-rights 4. Applied Behavioral Analysis International, ABAI Conference 2022: https://www.abainternational.org/events/international/dublin-2022/conference-home.aspx 5. UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, 2006: https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convention_accessible_pdf.pdf

Our mental health is suffering for the lack of public community space. We have lost so much with the closing - Children's Saturday morning story time, The stitch n bitch, Film club, book club. Cathy Suffel the historian in residence talks, the fact that one never knows who is alive or dead because of the lack of community space

For many parents with a fear of gadgets, programming courses are a lifesaver. The child is already addicted to computer games and it's hard to distract them, so let them do something useful, they say. This is the most popular request when starting school. Another popular option: parents understand the prospects of IT-sphere and send their children to learn demanded skills for high-paying professions. Children in general find learning programming from scratch much easier than adults without IT experience. In third place is the desire of children who are interested in IT. Parents support this interest and buy courses. Learning to program is above all a great way to develop logical and analytical thinking. When writing code, the programmer goes to the goal, speaks the same language as the computer and will only be understood if the code is logically constructed. If two lines are mixed up, the program or game will not work. Analytical thinking, planning, and planning come into play. Design thinking works too. The courses are designed with a practical approach in mind, students can practice what they have learned in their projects without using ready-made templates. A clear sequence of actions, decomposition of tasks and tracking their implementation are important for success. If, when creating a game, a child spends all his or her time on elaborating one character, the game will not happen. You will get one character without a game world. Therefore, students develop soft skills and time-management skills at the same time.

Unregulated private consultants or 'experts' are routinely used in the Family Law Courts to determine if children should be forced to be 'reconciled' with a parent (usually a father) without any consideration of the children's wishes or reports of evidence of abuse and violence in the home.  Because of the 'in camera' rule there is no exposure of this widespread practice, no data, no oversight or accountability and if women and children speak about what is happening they can be criminalised for breaking the 'in camera' rule.  Very recently a woman's young children were taken without warning from their school in the company of Gardai. They were removed from the care of their mother and the only home they have ever known and forced to live in their father’s house. They are not allowed to see or speak to their mother.  The children have told their teachers, doctor and the social workers what they want and why but the court won’t listen and says they can’t have a voice - on the recommendation of a so called unregulated 'family expert witness'. The 2015 Child and Family Relationship Act says that all children have a right to be heard in matters concerning their lives and should be involved in decisions made about them. The children’s father has continued to exert power and control through post-separation abuse. The greatest way to hurt her is by taking the children away from her, aided by unregulated experts in the family law courts who are silencing victims of domestic violence and their children. We hear from many mothers who are victims of domestic and sexual violence, that in the family courts, when it comes to guardianship, custody and access hearings, domestic abuse survivors are not being heard or prioritised. Many of the reports are very similar to the story outlined above.  The reasons offered for these forced separation/reconciliation decisions by 'family court experts' are unreliable. Their arguments draw on concepts that are unscientific and discredited ie. parental alienation.  To stop this 'in plain sight' abuse of children and women who are survivors of violence - scrutiny of the decisions being made in Family Law Courts is urgently needed. Unregulated experts have to be investigated and their decisions published and reviewed. Mandatory training and education, accreditation and accountability for all professionals is desperately needed for all professionals working in the Family Courts. There must be independent monitoring and oversight.  Children should have the right to live free from fear. Our children should never be subjected to forced removal from their home and family and silenced by so called unregulated 'experts'. Children’s views, voice and wishes, their feelings and human rights should be paramount in all decisions by the court regarding contact arrangements.

The local community in Inchicore have used the public library for generations since 1937. Now the Art Deco library needs refurbishment and a wheelchair access ramp built. The architects plan has been drawn up by DCC, but the tender has not been reissued after Covid. There may be alternative plans to convert the historic building into a tourist attraction - a possible social history museum, similar to EPIC. The library keys were handed over by the librarian to the DCC Dept of Property Development and Planning in January 2022. No one in the local community has been consulted about this. The local community are worried that they will lose access to this valuable community space. We are asking DCC to work with the local community on the future of the library, maintaining community access. The building has been empty for 3 years and is unheated. Refurbishment works are urgently needed due to the wet weather. The wheelchair access ramp has been fully designed - the tender just needs to be reissued by DCC.

There are many young families here and the creche was part of the deal when buying the houses.

If our Speech and Language Therapy teacher is withdrawn it means that out of 55 children receiving Speech and Language Therapy in the school only 5 will continue to receive it in St Mary's. Parents of special needs children have to fight tooth and nail for any services for their children and to think a service that is having a positive effect on all these children's progression is going to be withdrawn is absolutely disgraceful and unforgivable. We are calling on all our local Councillors and TD's particularly those in Government for support and to use their influence to have this decision reversed.

It’s very important to ensure that such crimes on humanity & sites deemed to be crime scenes is properly investigated and while such is dragged out by the Irish government, the least we can do is protect & preserve the whole of the land respectfully until it’s investigated in the manner it legally should be.

Childcare costs are the main reason Ireland has one of the lowest labour force participation rates among women in the developed world. 'The working poor ' reported the two main costs negatively impacting their welfare: housing and childcare. Fix even one of these and life would be better for all families in Ireland