Courts in Ecuador found that Chevron-Texaco had deliberately dumped 16 billion gallons of cancer-causing toxic oil waste into the rainforest, causing a cancer epidemic that has killed thousands and has decimated five indigenous nations who are teetering on the brink of extinction. They inflicted death and devastation on communities of people and wildlife that no fair-minded Irish person would ever tolerate. “The oil companies came to these pristine forests, backed by our own government. They took what they wanted and wiped-out cultures, completely disregarded the Indigenous people, killed animals and ruined sacred places. In the end, the people couldn’t do anything about it because they couldn’t speak the language of the people destroying their lives! The same destruction is still going on to this day.” Nina Gualinga, Indigenous campaigner for Ecuador Amazon Watch. Nina Gualinga, an indigenous environmental and human rights warrior from Ecuador. https://amazonwatch.org/news/2016/0715-toxic-tour Then, they fled Ecuador after a court had ordered them to pay $US9.5 billion in compensation to local communities. Ever since, they have threatened the communities they violated with a ‘lifetime of litigation’ unless they dropped the case. They have attacked their victims with retaliatory lawsuits. In the face of their inexcusable and catastrophic impact on the planet, fossil fuel companies like Chevron-Texaco are desperate for a ‘social-licence’ to operate. In parallel with their human-rights abuses in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Texaco were cynically running a ‘Children’s Art Competition’ here in Ireland while at the same time they were destroying children’s lives in the Amazon. The legacy of that destruction continues to this day. There can be no place for fossil fuel companies like Texaco in Children’s Art or Sports in Ireland. Join the growing number of major arts institutions and museums around the world who have severed their ties with major oil companies like Texaco.

Our petition is about the catastrophic effects of neglecting to fix an issue after the first death, not the seventh. Needless loss of life has a devastating effect on families and communities. Make the fix now. Please sign this petition and support us as we work to bring the urgency of this need to the officials of Edenderry, Tullamore and Ofally Thank you for signing, thank you for sharing this and stay safe on the road this year.

In recent years, the Dublin councils have only ever received one valid tender for their dog pound contracts, which was from Ashton Dog Pound & Warden Services. Over the years, many people have come to question the standards of care and the quality of service provided at Ashton Dog Pound, particularly in light of the current garda investigation into the misuse of controlled drugs which allegedly led to the death of 2 dogs in Summer 2020, which has now resulted in arrests. This has lead to a fundamental undermining of trust, not only in the Dublin dog pound and warden service, but in the whole public procurement process itself which has allowed a situation to continue, whereby there has been only one applicant for such a lucrative government contract. It is very important that the Dublin councils take urgent action to restore our faith in both the dog pound services they provide and the system by which they appoint service providers. Section 35(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 is subject to a public interest test, and states that information should generally be released if the public interest would, on balance, be better served by granting than by refusing to grant the FOI request. With this in mind, we call on all 4 Dublin councils to put animal welfare at the forefront of their decision making process when choosing a dog pound service provider in 2021 and fully commit to making all tenders available after the choice has been made, so that Dubliners can see that it was indeed in the best interest of our city's dogs.

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.