• Public Inquiry Into Tusla Petition
    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.
    2,262 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Barbara Scanlon
  • Reinstate Bus Stops On Bettystown Route
    The service has become inaccessible to those with disability and mobility issues. It is having a negative effect on many commuters for little gain. Journey times have not decreased as advised, in fact due to the removal of stops the journey time has increased in many cases. With bad weather and poor visability, the removal of some stops has put an immediate risk to passengers, who must now walk through poorly lit roads to reach thier closest stop.
    439 of 500 Signatures
    Created by Nathan Hallett
  • BRING the UNCRPD TO IRELAND NOW! Legal Capacity = Right to be HUMAN
    The UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities), is a human rights instrument with a social development dimension. It reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. You, me and our loved ones are very likely to acquire a disability at some point in our lives. To make decisions for yourself is WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN. No government or organisation should be able to remove these rights because we have not signed the UNCRPD, but this is occurring in Ireland today. This is hidden and happening each and EVERY DAY that we deny ourselves the rights under the UNCRPD. Please help remove the medieval Ward of Court System in this country now by making the government COMMENCE the long overdue UNCRPD. HELP COMMENCE THE UNCRPD
    24 of 100 Signatures
    Created by John Murphy
  • access for all - get the lifts working
    Each day there are lifts out of order along the DART and commuter line. This affects wheelchair users, parents with buggies and elderly people. In 2016, disability activist Sean O'Kelly was going for driving lessons in Clontarf, he got the DART there weekly. Back then, according Irish Rail, the notice period to give them was 24 hours. This is to allow for Irish Rail personnel to be there to bridge the gap between the train and the platform. The notice period now is 4 hours. On one particular occasion he arrived in Clontarf DART station and there was nobody there to meet him - the driver of the train got him off. The DART had gone off and he approached the lift to discover that it was out of order and was not given prior notice of this. He rang Pearse DART station who then let Killester know that he needed to get on the DART. He was stranded on the platform for half an hour. Access for all was set up to highlight the fact that lifts are out daily and to appeal to Minister Ross to put in some intervention to prevent this from happening. To date, there is no willingness to put serious action in place and he is passing the 'book' onto Irish Rail. We need as much public support as possible. Please sign this if you believe this situation is wrong. Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much
    372 of 400 Signatures
    Created by Sean O'Kelly
  • An Education, Health & Care plan to be legal right of every child and young person in Ireland
    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.
    829 of 1,000 Signatures
    Created by Cork Autism Conference Picture
  • July Provision for children with Down syndrome in 2020
    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.
    11,573 of 15,000 Signatures
    Created by Declan Kenny
  • Don't Axe Rehabilitative Training Allowance
    School leavers and other adults with disabilities can attend Rehabilitative Training Courses run by the HSE or other specialist service providers. There are about 1,000 locations to do this training around the country. Rehabilitative Training Courses are courses to help develop life skills, social skills and basic work skills for people with disabilities. People who do these training courses usually have intellectual disabilities, complex physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, mental health difficulties or autism. Each year, around 400 school leavers enroll in these training courses. Trainees attend these courses for two to four years and are supported to develop and review training plans in line with their needs and abilities. Rehabilitative training is intended to help participants progress to greater levels of independence and integration in their community. It may help in transitioning to mainstream post-school education and training or to specialist vocational training. Participants who satisfy the relevant social welfare criteria may be eligible for a weekly Disability Allowance as well as a special training allowance, which is currently €31.80 per week. However, Minister Simon Harris and the HSE have decided to axe this extra training allowance of €31.80 per week for all school leavers who start a Rehabilitative Training Course in September 2019. In addition, The HSE, which has a deficit of €116 million, has warned that it may have to curtail funding to disability services. 1. Disability Women Ireland want the training allowance of €31.80 per week to be retained for individuals starting Rehabilitative Training Courses in September 2019. 2. Disability Women Ireland want to stop this threat to the funding of Rehabilitative Training Services. This training is extremely valuable to disabled people giving them skills, independence and the ability to contribute to Irish society. The Mission of Disabled Women Ireland is (DWI) is to be a National voice for the needs and rights of women, trans and non-binary people with disabilities and a National force to improve the lives and life chances of people with disabilities. “Equality for women, and equality for disabled people must work hand in hand if either is to be successful” — Disabled Women Ireland https://www.disabledwomenireland.org/ https://www.facebook.com/DWIreland/
    207 of 300 Signatures
    Created by Roisin Hackett
  • Keep Sruthan House Open
    Sruthan House, located in Dundalk Co. Louth, provides a vital respite service for people with physical and/or sensory disabilities. It is run by the HSE in partnership with the Irish Wheelchair Association. The centre provides twenty four hour respite care to both males and females aged 18 – 65 years old. Without Sruthan House their only alternatives are in Sligo, Roscommon and Dublin. This is Fine Gael's latest attempt at eroding our nation's health service and it cannot continue.
    1,428 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Dundalk For Change
  • For a better and more reliable 47 bus Route for the Stepaside Community
    This is extremely important, we have school kids, College students, Elderly people and people with disabilities either going to school,College,Hospital or doctors appointments and people using the bus to get shopping, 1 an hour is not enough especially at peak times, not to mention at winter time when people are standing in the cold and the rain or snow with no bus shelter and a Bus thats due may or may not turn up, Stepaside is a huge population now and still growing, bus service no longer meets that growing demand.
    66 of 100 Signatures
    Created by John Downes
  • We want to work - make workplaces accessible!
    Do you think that it is fair that Deaf community in Ireland can simply thrive in the UK with the provision of Access To Work Scheme funded by the British Government, but not here in Ireland? In the UK, Access to Work Scheme gives a wide range of reasonable accommodation such as sign language interpreters in the workplace, note-takers for meetings, and different supports that Deaf individuals may need. This scheme would not just benefit the Deaf community but all people with disabilities. People with disabilities are diverse including physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities and mental health and with the Access to Work Scheme, people with disabilities in the UK are thriving too with supports they need. This scheme in the UK has proved to be economically beneficial, that for every £1 spent on ATW, £1.48 is recouped by the government, as more people are in employment and not on dependent on the government welfare system. Unfortunately, there is no such scheme like that here in Ireland. Deaf community face severe barriers and discrimination in the workplace here. Deaf people are 2-4 times more likely to be unemployed than their hearing peers. Irish Sign Language (ISL) is the first and/or preferred language of Deaf community, of at least 5,000 Deaf people. As English is a second language for most of these Deaf people, there is significant difficulty in the workplace in terms of access. We regularly experience the effects of restricted access to supports, services and opportunities in the workplace including interviews. In Ireland, those majority of Deaf people, who are currently working have been in low-paid and low-status jobs with little hope of promotion. They tend to stay in their workplace for the long-term, rather than change jobs and achieve their career dream like their hearing peers. Work and paid employment serve to develop a sense of belonging with positive mental health benefits and identification with the wider community. However, Deaf people in Ireland continue to face barriers in employment and experience higher rates of poverty, social exclusion and under-employment. Deaf people get adequate supports in the education system but not in the workplace. The gap needs filling. It's been filled and resolutely proven to work abroad. In Ireland, employers are obliged to provide reasonable accommodation as long as it doesn't impose a disproportionate burden on the employer. Currently, there are some financial supports such as the Job Interview Interpreter Grant which pays for interpreters at interview and induction period. There is the Workplace Equipment/Adaptation Grant which only covers equipment and not interpreting costs. There is also the Wage Subsidy Scheme which pays approximately €10,000 towards salary costs of a disabled person who can prove they have a lower productivity level than their peers. A pool of funding is available however deaf employees cannot access this pool of funding to meet the costs needed for interpreting due to systematic barriers. The Reasonable Accommodation Fund by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection needs a major overhaul to allow talented deaf employees to avail of this. With funding like the Access To Work Scheme, Deaf people can simply thrive here in Ireland where they can contribute and enhance their role through Irish Sign Language interpreting on a daily basis like their hearing peers. This can lead to job promotions and achieving their career dreams. This applies to people with disabilities generally, they can thrive as well with adequate supports. We always tell our children to follow their dreams and that they can achieve anything they put their minds to. Right now in Ireland, all epsecially young Deaf people don’t always have the opportunity to pursue their dream jobs - not because they’re not able to do them - but because they might not be accessible. Let’s change that now. Thank you Joanne Chester email: [email protected] Supported by: Irish Deaf Youth Association Irish Deaf Society National Deaf Women of Ireland
    1,447 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Joanne Chester
  • St. Teresa's Special School (Save Our School)
    This school provides so much more than just education and care for its 21 students, it gives those children a sense of independence and belonging. it’s also a growing school with an increase in students due next September
    3,646 of 4,000 Signatures
    Created by Ken Campbell
  • Abolish Loco Parentis
    Under the Loco Parentis rule, parents of disabled children are restricted from leaving their own home while a respite nurse is in the home to provide in-home respite. An adult must remain in the home. This is not respite. Parents who are caring 24/7 for their medically fragile children must be able to recharge, run errands, go to medical appointments, spend time away with their other children, and much more. The siblings of the disabled children must also be able to have the most normal social life outside of the home as possible. For this to happen, parents must be able to leave the home with these siblings during in-home nursing respite hours. This rule is particularly discriminatory against lone parent carers who don't have a partner to be the adult to remain in the home as the Loco Parentis. Of all carers, lone parent carers are typically under the most amount of stress - physically and emotionally - and as such, being able to leave the home, even just once a week for 5 hours, is desperately needed. Ultimately, the best care possible for the disabled child is what is at risk if the parent carer is unable to maintain their own physical and emotional well-being. The other children in the family, and family unit as a whole, are also at risk of harmful, irreparable dysfunction if essentially trapped in their home due to such an inhumane, unjust, policy as is Loco Parentis. This rule, implemented by the HSE, is clearly a violation of human rights and the rights of children.
    2,887 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Tracy McGinnis