Ulster Bank made a commitment to customers in 2010 never to close the last Bank in town. When the AIB in Raphoe closed your Bank poached customers from AIB on the basis that the Ulster Bank wasn’t going anywhere. When Ulster Bank closed their office in Lifford and transferred its customers to Raphoe your Bank assured those customers that Ulster Bank in Raphoe was there to stay. Do these commitments mean anything to you? How can the Bank now break these commitments and turn their back on their customers, the community and their staff? The people, staff and businesses of our towns need these branches. To close them is to break your Banks commitments and abandon our towns. Please reverse your decision or customers will withdraw their business from Ulster Bank for good. We will not be transferred to other Ulster Bank branches.

T.A.R.G.E.T is a vital community service that provides literacy skills, counselling, community employment, extensive training and affordable childcare to the local community in Donaghmede. But, we have just been told that they need to be out of their premises by June - leaving the future of the project - and all the people it supports - hanging in the balance. Can you sign the petition to ask Dublin City Council to make sure a suitable home for our project is found before the June deadline.

URGENT: A family are to be evicted from their home on Ferrycarrig halting site tomorrow Monday the 20th of March if we don't convince Wexford County Council to withdraw their complaint from An Gardaí. The family have small children and the council have failed to provide suitable alternative accommodation. But, if enough of us sign the petition and send it to Wexford County Council before tomorrow - we could make them change their mind and withdraw their complaint.

Jack Nealon's pub, a traditional Dublin pub with 100 years history, is about to be closed. NAMA has sold the loans on the building to vulture fund Oaktree who have now decided to close the pub and change the function of the building. Dublin City Council should protect this piece of history by refusing planning applications to change the use of the building.

On Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, the Joint Committee on Water will vote on whether they recommend water charges for “excessive use.” This will be a Trojan Horse for bringing in full water charges at a later date. So far 10 members of the 20 person water committee have committed to scrapping water charges and ending the domestic metering process. If one more member abstains or votes to scrap the charges, the Dail will be instructed to end metering and end water charges for good. We’re asking people to contact two members of the Committee who may support our position. Senator Grace O’Sullivan of the Civic Engagement Group and Deputy Noel Grealish, Independent TD for Galway West. We must convince these members to vote to scrap water charges: 1. If metered charges continue, eventually allowances will be reduced and full water charges will be introduced in time – meaning Ireland would have water poverty for the first time in our history. 2. Irish people are not wasteful with their water. In fact, we use less water than almost any other country in the EU consuming 25% less water than countries like the UK where they’ve had metered charges for almost 30 years. 3. There is a real problem with leaks in the system but only 3% of leaks come from the household side of the infrastructure. Funding should be directed to the public side where 97% of water is being leaked and also to district metering which could identify leaks. 4. A metering process for ‘excessive use’ makes no economic sense. Firstly, the ‘expert commission’ on water said there is no identifiable excessive use and using their formula for charging for excessive use would mean spending up to €300 million on a metering programme for a return of €27 million. This is a waste of valuable taxpayers money and would divert money from upgrading the real infrastructural problems. 5. The real agenda behind water charges is privatization. Should the metering process continue, there is no doubt that our water would be privatized in the future. 6. Article 1.9 of the CETA international trade agreement could provide for the privatization of our water in the future and having meters in place would facilitate this. 7. Two thirds of the Irish public voted for politicians who declared opposition to water charges. This is backed up by the Irish Times MRBI poll which shows that 64% of the population want the charges scrapped while only 34% want them continued. It is time to do the democratic will of the Irish electorate. For these reasons and more water charges must be abolished. We need you to contact Senator Grace O’Sullivan and Deputy Noel Grealish and demand they abstain or vote to end water charges for good. Noel Grealish TD - [email protected] Senator Grace O’Sullivan - [email protected] As Senator Grace O’Sullivan is representing the Civic Engagement Group on the Water Committee, it is important that we tell the other members of the Committee to support our call. The full Civic Engagement Group includes: Alice Mary Higgins – [email protected] Collette Kelleher – [email protected] Frances Black – [email protected] Lynn Ruane – [email protected] John Dolan – [email protected] Please sign this petition and share with everyone you know. We only have days to protect our human right to water and prevent future water poverty.

We are not racist, dont let Trump make us look like we are.

Donald Trump has started his presidency threatening to forcibly remove all Palestinians from Gaza and turn it into a holiday resort, he has doubled down in his support for war criminal Netanyahu, and has resumed sending heavy bombs to Israel for them to use against people in Gaza.  He is also causing chaos back in the US:  • He has launched a massive attack on trans rights putting thousands of people in serious danger of their lives. • He has attacked hundreds of thousands of workers, slashing jobs and allowing billionaire Elon Musk to fire entire departments. • He has ordered that people who live and work in the US without specific documentation are to be rounded up and detained in the infamous Guantánamo Bay prison. • He is dismantling regulations on corporations that keep people's food and water safe. • He is ramping up polluting fossil fuel extraction, undoing decades of slow progress. • He is removing all information about trans people, climate change, and public health from government websites. It is unthinkable that any Irish politician would go to the White House this St. Patrick's day to shake Trump's hand and we are calling on you Micheál Martin to boycott the White House this March.

The billions of euro debt that were transferred to Irish citizens was and is a travesty due to inept administration. No one has been held accountable and the media in Ireland is stonewalling and obstructing Jonathan Sugarman's obligation to inform the Irish people.

The HSE is selling off a substantial former hospital with 46 acres in Enniscorthy, Co.Wexford for a knockdown price -right in the middle of a housing crisis. It is unbelievable that one part of the public service is effectively giving away state property assets which could be used to assist in alleviating the housing emergency by donating it to the local authority / Dept of Environment for housing. The aim of this campaign is twofold: 1. Withdraw the property from sale with immediate effect 2. For the Dept of Environment to take control of the asset and to investigate the best use of the property for housing use. http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/hse-puts-st-senan-s-psychiatric-hospital-on-market-at-780-000-1.2930239

Irish society is fractured, unfair and insecure because successive governments has been unwilling to incorporate economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights into domestic law, which would force government to deliver policies that tackle poverty, provide housing, control rents, bring healthcare to everybody and guarantee a decent income for everyone. It’s pretty obvious that Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister Frances Fitzgerald have no interest in human rights measures that would oblige government to address social injustice. So, homelessness, exploitative rents and crippling mortgages are set to continue and the likelihood that your parents or grandparents will end up on a hospital trolley after devoting their life to building this nation will endure. Almost a third of the population will still be unable to afford essential items such as heating, a warm coat or an adequate meal. Yet these abominations are infinitely solvable within our existing resources - we are after all, one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Are we going to put up with this? Are we prepared to let things that were hard fought for - healthcare, affordable housing, a decent income – slip away, so wealthy people can be even wealthier? It doesn’t have to be so. Ireland has signed and ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights but has failed to incorporate the Covenant into domestic law, claiming that economic, social and cultural matters are for government to decide. Yet governments have consistently failed to address poverty, homelessness and other situations arising from an absence of enforceable ESC rights. Thomas Pringle will introduce a Private Member’s Bill in the coming months proposing a referendum to strengthen constitutional protection of ESC rights in accordance with the recommendations of the Convention on the Constitution. With your support we can make this happen. Please indicate your support by putting your name to this demand. Be part of this human rights campaign. Together we can make it happen!

This bill will facilitate evictions, increase the power of landlords to evict tenants, & allow developers to build without any real regulation or consultation. What the Bill will do: - Give landlords the right to evict tenants if they feel they could charge more to new tenants. - Allow landlords to evict households who have been in their home and community for over 4 years with no extended notice. - Increase homelessness and put almost 25% of the population under constant threat of eviction. - Allow An Bord Pleanála to privately develop plans with private developers without public consultation. This will lead to unsuitable, untenable and unfinished housing developments nationwide. - Allow for developers to be compensated by up to €10,000 if their planning applications are delayed - an obscene waste of public money. We are in the grips of the worst housing crisis Ireland has seen in a century. However, there are 5,000 empty homes across South Dublin alone. This bill does nothing to tackle the problem of vacant properties, which affects every part of the country. This Bill directly steals from the pockets of a public struggling to keep their homes, to give to private developers and landlords. . This Bill is an obscene affront to the most basic right to a home, and is an insult to the thousands of families and individuals homeless and living on the streets and in cramped hotel rooms nationwide.

The proposed College Green Plaza will be an iconic civic space in the heart of Dublin - Ireland's capital. It has the potential to rival other great urban spaces like Dam Square in Amsterdam or Trafalgar Square in London. However to achieve this the expansion of the proposed extent of the College Green Plaza to the steps of the former Parliament building (now Bank of Ireland) is of paramount significance. Given that the tax paying citizens of the State funded the Bank Bailout, and Bank of Ireland is essentially now State owned this petition calls on that Bank to allow the expansion of College Green Plaza by removing Parking in the forecourt area as a gesture of goodwill towards the people of Ireland and its capital city. A recent public consultation on the proposed plaza at College Green heard that the railings at Bank of Ireland were private and would stay, while trees would be removed. It is therefore clear that retention of railings is to facilitate parking in the forecourt of the Bank. This is not in keeping with a pedestrian plaza and or the opening of a new cultural visitor centre at College Green in 2017 which will greatly enhance the amenity value of the College Green complex. While the present railings do have historic value they should not be used to curtail the extent of the plaza. With careful planning and your input College Green can become a focal point for our nation in the heart of our capital city and once again play host to historic public gatherings from the visit of President Obama in 2011 to rallies and marches in support of issues that matter to all of us. Please sign & share and have your say !