Irish people have been locked down since last March. We are currently in another level 5 lockdown. Children are out of school, employees out of work, the hospitality sector shut down. People cannot travel outside of 5km. For you to decide to travel to America for St. Patrick’s Day would be a huge slap in the face for everyone. Show leadership and do what everyone else has to do! Stay at home.

The people of Ireland have been asked not to travel outside of the country and to restrict their movements to help reduce the risk of transmission of Covid 19. All of the people are being asked to make sacrifices and out of respect for those who have lost their lives, their job and those working on the front line, it is vital that the Taoiseach of Ireland also abides by the rules and therefore does not travel to Washington DC for St Patrick's Day. People are asked to conduct their business through Zoom and other online applications, this should be sufficent on this occasion.

At the start of the pandemic, student nurses were being paid to staff wards and make up the staffing shortfall in the NHS. Since September these payments stopped, despite the current wave of Covid19 putting Northern Ireland's hospitals under pressure like never before. Students Nurses work 37.5hrs per week on clinical placement at the rate of £2.86 per hour under the current bursary of £430 per month. This does not meet basic cost of living standards. Paid less than the national minimum wage. Northern Ireland bursary has not been increased whereas Scotland's bursary is increased year to year. The majority of students still have to work part time on top of placement to be able to live month to month. Due to covid placement areas students are restricted to where they can work if at all Students are working in Covid wards and are at the same risk of as a paid member of staff. Students do not receive sick pay. Many students have incurred costs from covid-19 pandemic from moving out of home due to vulnerable family members at risk. No support available. These student nurses are the future of our NHS. They deserve to be paid for the risks they are taking at the frontline of this pandemic.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) is mandated under the Arterial Drainage Act 1945 to 'maintain' over 11,000km of river channel in Ireland - something that has resulted in the destruction of whole river systems. We need a new law that is fit to address the biodiversity and climate crisis and that works with - and for - people and nature.

The Local authorities were responsible for the Mother and Baby 'homes'. They funded the institutions and failed to protect the women and children. The sites of these institutions, including their burial grounds, must be protected from redevelopment.

I stand with Catherine Corless & her calls on the government to immediately exhume from the sewege system in Tuam, the hundreds of babies bodies that were denied dignity in life and in death.

The mother and baby homes report came out today. The highlights of this report are incredibly saddening. For a woman and child that was subjected to such cruelty under the hands of a religious order that they possibly looked up to is inhumane. The catholic church need to apologize and the catholic orders also for this horrible Irish history. The woman and children of these homes deserve that at least! Woman are not second class citizens. We have fought to be heard for many years and we continue to fight.

At the moment we are set to have vaccinated 135,000 people by the end of February 2021. This is simply not enough. If we want to beat this disease and get back to somewhat normality we need to rapidly increase the amount of the vaccine being administrated and to change the way that we are doing so. We need around the clock 24hr administration of the vaccine. We need to train up and utilise all of the volunteers that we can to roll-out this vaccine to everyone possible. We need to have an online system of registration including a list for cancellations to ensure that every single dose is used. We need to aggressively tackle this disease and get a better plan than the one that we have. Take a look at Israel, they have vaccinated 1.37million of their people. We need to make sure that we give everyone the opportunity to receive the vaccine should they want to in the quickest possible time. We also need to look at the priority group system and roll-out quicker to our most needed services

Under the Domestic Violence Act 2018, there are three different orders that victims of abuse can apply at the District Court. These are; Barring Orders, Safety Orders, and Temporary Protection Orders. In many cases, the perpetrator must be notified of an order against them - either orally by the applicant or Gardaí, or they will be notified of the order by post. An order does not take effect until it is served to the respondent. In the case of a protection order, or an interim barring order, the court usually directs that order to be served on the respondent by An Garda Síochána. . The Orders that cause the most issue are Barring or Safety orders as these have both the victims and the abusers addresses on them.

Any prisoners serving a sentence longer than 8 years are allowed to apply for parole halfway through that sentence. Being approved for parole would grant them early release from prison. Someone sentenced to life in prison can apply after 7 years. The parole board is an administrative collection of members who advise the minister for Justice and Equality on the applications from long term prisoners. The members include senior officials from the department of justice and equality, the head of the probation service, the medical director of the central mental hospital and various community representatives. At the moment the applicant must go before a parole board who will assess their progress and examine how they have engaged in reformative work while in prison and a number of other factors including; * Whether it is reasonable to grant early release based on the nature of the offence * Whether they want release * Whether there are any compassionate grounds that would grant special consideration * Whether they have engaged with therapeutic services within prison to combat their offending behaviour * And whether their release would be considered a threat to the safety of the community Their recommendation is passed to the serving minister for justice and equality who must then either accept, deny or accept it in part. When a prisoner is not recommended for release, they will have their case reviewed every one and a half to three years. This means that the families of victims must prepare themselves to write a statement each time between the seven-year mark and when the perpetrator is eventually released on license. This is a traumatising task for those bereaved by homicide or victims of crime. A piece of legislation that would increase the minimum term served before convicted killers could apply for parole to 12 years was first proposed to the government in 2016. It was enacted in July 2019 and would mean that the parole board would become an independent body outside of the government becoming more transparent and accessible for victims. The new parole board would be made up of people who are appointed by the Minister for Justice who would have an understanding of the prison system, the law and the impact on victims. This would remove politics from the parole process. The Parole Act was passed in 2019 and a year later it has still not been implemented. Convicted murders have been eligible for parole during this time, the Act would have been retrospective and ensured they had to serve a minimum of 12 years so the Department of Justice has let down victims and their families with the delay. Sinead O'Leary was the victim of a random, vicious knife attack which left her fighting for her life, and ended the life of her best friend Nichola Sweeney. Her attacker, Nichola's murderer, Peter Whelan, has been up before the Parole board numerous times, he has also been granted day release and neutral venue visits in the area where he committed the horrific assault. The Parole process has left Sinead feeling re-traumatised and disposable, and it has devastated Nichola Sweeney's family. . Here is Sinead's account; "The process has been soul destroying, painful and confronting. Peter Whelan deemed my life to be without worth, he deemed Nichola’s life to be without worth and he continues to do so. Allowing this monstrous individual to have access to the Parole Board 7 years before he was due to even begin serving his sentence for her murder devalues Nichola’s life. Recommending and permitting temporary day releases after serving a mere four years, not even the minimum seven-year term of this sentence, devalues Nichola’s life and Nicholas families trauma.. Reducing the sentence of attempted murder by four years devalues my trauma. Whelan may display ‘good behaviour’ in prison but Whelan has done this before. He reportedly was a ‘model client’ during a 4-month stay in a substance abuse treatment centre which his parents enrolled him days after he assaulted the girls on New Year’s Eve, yet two weeks later he launched his frenzied attack on Nichola and I. To be blunt, prison is not the real world. It is simply controlled compliance. Compliance should not be rewarded, it should be expected. What happens to someone as disordered as Whelan when all the strict controls of prison are replaced with the myriad of choices, stresses, and temptations of the real world? I was 19 years of age when Peter Whelan tried to kill me. I was at the beginning of my adult life, no longer a child, with a world of possibilities ahead of me. Instead, I entered adulthood in a world of pain and trauma. I spent my 20th birthday recovering in a hospital bed reeling from the reality that my best friend had been murdered. While the man who tried to kill me slept soundly in his cell despite the horror he inflicted upon Nichola and I. I have spent subsequent birthdays mourning the life of my best friend and the life that was taken from me. For I am serving my own life sentence because of the actions of Peter Whelan. In 2019, I was told that not only had Whelan had three meetings with the Parole Board, in 2010, 2014 and 2018, but that he had been recommended for three-monthly neutral venue visits with family in Cork. And to my shock and disbelief, he had actually been in Cork based on this decision several times. This information was absolutely devastating to Nichola's family and I. We were completely blindsided. The position I have been put in is not right and not just. My life is not is not liveable with Whelan returning to my community, to Cork, in any capacity. I feel I must advocate for not only myself and my right to a peaceful and safe life, but for my family and for the wider community to have peaceful and safe lives from this dangerous unremorseful individual. And of course I feel I must advocate for Nichola and her family's ongoing trauma."

There is a great deal of concern from parents, teachers, principals and elected members of the Northern Ireland Assembly about the current private system of transfer tests and particularly during this pandemic year.

Donald Trump has called for vote counting to cease. Democracy is at risk. We must do all we can to ensure that voters wishes are respected.