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.

Every home and business in Ireland needs access to quality broadband. It is as important as electricity and water. But the roll out of Broadband has gone from 500 million euros to 3 billion euros. The whole process has been marred by controversy and lack of transparency. We need to learn the lessons from the National Children's Hospital. Public money is our money and needs to be spend correctly, transparency and with proper governance.

Ireland has changed, we are a more inclusive, equal and progressive society and sex education in Irish schools must reflect this. Young people we work with have said that sex education is not fit for purpose, does not reflect the variety of identities and sexual orientation of people today, putting the health and safety of young people at risk. Recommendations by the Oireachtas Committee on Relationships and Sexual Health, and the NCCA Review of the RSE, echo what our young people say.

The post office is at the heart of our town and is part of the social and commercial fabric of Liberty Square. it is easily accessible for people of all ages but particularly for those with mobility issues. It is also extremely convenient for people using public transport. The proposed re-location to a vulture fund owned shopping centre is completely contrary to Government policy to protect town centres and will decimate Liberty Square.

As parents to 2 terminally ill boys, Cathal (4) and Ciaran (3) we do not want any other parents to suffer our pain unnecessarily. We want our boys to be amongst the last born in Ireland with a disease that could have been treated at birth. Our sons have a rare condition Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD) with a life expectancy of 5 yrs. Through a trial gene therapy treatment program in Milan, Italy, we were able to treat Ciaran who is now 2 years post therapy and doing well. For Cathal however there was no chance of treatment be cause once the condition had been diagnosed it was to late. Through our experience in Italy we learnt of their program to expand their newborn screening program from 4 diseases to 40 in 1 year. This has been a huge success and will save so many lives and so much suffering that we must follow their lead and protect our children here in Ireland. The Italian government has presented this information to the EU parliament and their ministry of health and the charity organisations who drove this change have openly offer their assistance to us to copy their model in this expansion. I have written to every politician in Ireland and shared this information and the relevant contacts with our HSE. But I have been advised from the people who made it happen in Italy that public will and pressure on the government are the best ways to effect change. All the studies and validations for all 40 diseases they now screen for are available to use, along with the financial cases for each disease. Making this change will also save millions of euro! 1 in 1500 births in Ireland will have 1 of these detectable and treatable conditions. 1 baby every 8 days. We have watched our son Cathal grow to be a beautiful 2 year old boy with no problems and then slowly fade over the last 3 yrs. He is fully paralyzed now and close to the end. We cannot bear the burden of knowing there will be other parents like us unless their is an immediate action taken on this. Please take the time to sign this petition and to share it with everyone and anyone you can. There is a wonderful opportunity to make a huge change here in Ireland, saving the lives of children and the suffering of so many families. https://www.facebook.com/themartinfamilytrust

Last year's removal of Maser's repeal the 8th mural brought censorship of the arts to the forefront of our minds once again. The register of prohibited books is practically obsolete, but until the Censorship of Publications Act is also obsolete, the threat of censorship hangs over artists in Ireland. Minister, repeal the act and liberate the arts from the threat of censorship once and for all!

For two years, Human Rights Watch has spoken with Airbnb about their brokering of rentals in West Bank settlements that are illegal under international humanitarian law and for which Palestinian ID holders are effectively barred from entering. The settlement movement has sought to encourage tourism in occupied land, with the help of the Israeli government, which established national parks there. A leaked European Union report said some projects were being used “as a political tool to … support, legitimise and expand settlements”. Irish people know only too well the negative consequences of imperialist racist occupation. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/nov/19/airbnb-removes-rentals-in-israeli-west-bank-settlements

The Four Masters' Park is a small green lung on Berkeley Road in the heart of the North inner-city; one of the very few. It has many historic resonances, as it commemorates the Annals of the Four Masters while the memorial itself was commissioned by Sir William Wilde and executed by James Cahill. It was given by the Sisters of Mercy for the benefit of the local community. The current plan for the new MetroLink is to consume a substantial part of our green space for the new metro station. Less than 100 metres away from our park is a station already built under the Mater Hospital. This was a part of the old Metro North plans at the time Leo Varadkar was Minister for Transport in 2012. €20 million was spent on installing a station box beneath the new adult hospital. The Metro North enabling works were completed in 2013 under the Mater Whitty Building by BAM Contractors Ltd on behalf of the Railway Procurement Agency. It makes no sense to waste €20 million of public money and destroy a beloved local park. Recently, two vacant industrial sites nearby have been identified as possibilities, yet neither have been investigated by MetroLink. Please join us in supporting this campaign.

With the homeless figures officially exceeding the 10,000 mark, it is blatantly obvious to the public how ineffectual Minister Eoghan Murphy is. 10,000 men, women and children forced to live on the streets or in temporary shelters. Despite numerous protest marches and numerous demands from the public to deal with this EXTREMELY important issue, Minister Eoghan Murphy has time and again not dealt with this matter and despite all the promises that were made to deal with this matter effectively, the situation has gravely worsened. For the sake of all the people whose lives are at a risk on a daily basis on the streets, it is now high time for Eoghan Murphy to resign and for someone COMPETENT to take on the job.

PESCO was rushed through the Dail by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in 2017 without enough attention or coverage.(1) Under PESCO Ireland will increase its military spending which is currently approx. €1billion per year by up to as much as €6billion per year.(2) Instead of weaponry these enormous financial resources could be constructively spent tackling the housing and health crises. (3) The goal of the PESCO agreement is to integrate the armed forces of all the members and create an EU army. This runs completely counter to Ireland's peaceful role as a neutral state. Ireland can and should leave PESCO. RESCIND PESCO before it's too late. More info: The People's Movement https://www.facebook.com/peoplesmovementireland/ (1) https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2017-12-07/38/ (2) https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/concerns-government-will-have-to-commit-to-annual-3bn-defence-bill-if-they-join-pesco-817557.html (3) https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/if-we-are-heading-for-an-eu-army-what-does-that-mean-for-irish-neutrality-4331443-Nov2018/

1. The annual IRP renewal requirement has become a nuisance for international post-graduate research students, as it hinders their ability to attend research seminars, conferences, workshops, summer schools and research visits within & outside EU. 2. The entire process of: a. Finding an appointment; b. Arranging the required documents; c. Attending the appointment in person; d. Waiting for the IRP to arrive; e. Getting a bank draft ready; f. Applying for a multi-entry visa via An POST; g. Followed by the hassle of applying for country or region specific visa i.e., Schengen visa, is just too time consuming and cumbersome for us. 3. The entire process needs to be rethought if high-quality research outputs are expected to be delivered by highly-qualified, international post-graduate research students.

To date, 25 species of cetaceans have been recorded in Irish waters (Lusher at al., 2018). All cetaceans, pinnipeds; including harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) are protected in Ireland under a range of national and international legislation. Under the Wildlife Act (1976) and amendments (2000, 2005, 2010 and 2012), it is an offence to intentionally hunt, injure, wilfully interfere with or disturb or destroy the resting or breeding place of a protected species (except under licence or permit from the department). The 1976 Wildlife Act applies out to the 12 nm limit of Irish territorial waters. Additionally, all cetaceans, pinnipeds and otter and are protected under the EU Habitats Directive, where all cetaceans are included in Annex IV of the Directive as species ‘in need of strict protection’. Under this Directive, the harbour porpoise, bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), grey seal, harbour seal and Eurasian Otter are listed under Annex II, which identifies these species of community interest and whose conservation requires the designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) (O’ Brien, 2016). 3. Man-made noise generated from dredging operations, both from the physical presence of the dredger, and increased water turbidity within the area have potential to cause low levels of disturbance, including the masking of communication and induce behavioural impacts such as displacement from important habitat (O’Brien, 2016). Recently published literature on the impacts of dredging on marine mammals in Aberdeen Harbour found that bottlenose dolphins exhibited avoidance behaviour to dredging in a highly urbanised foraging patch, despite the expected high level of tolerance given the high level of vessel activity in the area (Pirotta et al., 2013). A similar review by Todd et al., (2014) found that in regard to dredging activities, the effect on marine mammals depends on the type of dredger used, state of operation, local sound propagation conditions and the receiver’s sensitivity and bandwidth of hearing. It also highlighted the potential for accidental collision with marine mammals. The review concluded that noise from dredging although perceived as being below the injury threshold for permanent hearing loss (PTS), according to criteria outlined in Southall et al., (2007), highlighted the potential for temporary damage to hearing (TTS) to marine mammals, such as the harbour porpoise after prolonged periods of exposure, also found in a more recent study (Kastelein et al., 2012). Indirect impacts from exposure of marine mammals to anthropogenic noise from dredging operations can result in changes to protected species physical environments, affecting prey distribution and introducing toxins and pollutants from dredge spoil.