Civilians must be evacuated and afforded safe passage out of Aleppo. Our leaders must ensure the UN plan for evacuation is implemented.

At present, the Lord Mayor of Cork is elected by councillors ever year for a one year term. There is a different Lord Mayor every year. This means there's isn't consistency or time enough for a mayor to make their mark. It means the citizens of Cork don't have the chance to vote for a mayor with a vision for the city. A vision that only a mayor can put in action. It wasn't meant to be this way. In 2001, the law was changed so that Cork and other cities would have a directly-elected mayor serving for five-year terms. The first elections were supposed to happen in 2004 - but this was reversed at the last minute and things were left hanging. Now it's time to put the Cork mayor back on the agenda! An elected mayor will provide a vision for Cork. They will have a mandate from the citizens to see that vision through. They will oversee the day-to-day implementation of a city plan in ways that part-time councillors can't. We already have a full-time Lord Mayor, so this won't cost any money. And an elected mayor won't replace the council. It will reinvigorate the city and give the running of it renewed energy and direction. Add your name now and call for a directly-elected Mayor of Cork! #MayorOfCork Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/psyberartist/

Save Ardmore Studios – Our National Film Studio Considered a driving force of the Irish film and television industry Ardmore Studios in Bray, Co Wicklow have hosted filmmakers from around the world for the past 58 years and have helped to establish Ireland as a hub for filmmaking. The facility itself has sound stages, production offices, workshops, hair and makeup, props, wardrobe, catering and much more, not to mention the wider reaching impact for the local economy with external companies providing supporting services and facilities. In recent months it was announced that Ardmore Studios is to go on sale, Initially the sale was advertised as an ongoing concern with the function of the land and buildings to remain as they are. However, talks have begun to consider an unconditional sale, which simply put could mean that the land and buildings may be used for other purposes such as residential, commercial/retail etc. The repercussions of a sale on these terms would be felt by the industry as a whole, with the loss of thousands of jobs both directly and indirectly in the Wicklow/Dublin area and beyond. At present through Enterprise Ireland the government holds a 31.6% stake in Ardmore Studios, this stake can be seen as a reflection of a desire to support and grow the film and television industry in Ireland. Currently there is a serious shortage of studio space in the country, which has already resulted in multi million euro productions going elsewhere in Europe. In order to continue to be a competitive challenger in the market place and to ensure the growth of the industry, the government should move to maintain at least this 31.6% stake and and ensure that Ardmore Studios are sold as an ongoing concern Please sign and share

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 !

#EducationIs a public good. The report outlines three funding options: 1) Funding Option One: A Predominantly State-Funded System. 2) Funding Option Two: Increased State-Funding with Continuing Student Fees. 3) Funding Option Three: Increased State-Funding with Deferred Payment of Fees Through Income Contingent Loans. USI know that Funding Option One is key for Irish students' future. Funding Option One: A predominantly state-funded system advocates that the state would significantly increase its core grant to institutions and the €3,000 undergraduate student contribution would be abolished. Higher education would be free at the point of entry for all first-time EU students and for part-time learners.There is also the possibility of extending free tuition to postgraduate education. Funding Option Three will have a negative effect on the lives of current and future Irish students. USI know that an income-contingent loan scheme is not a viable solution to third-level funding as a burden of €20,000+ debt upon graduation will deter people from applying to college. Financial strain of placing this debt on graduates spans across all communities and groups including parents, children, staff and teachers - not just students. The campaign is supported by members of the Coalition for Publicly Funded Higher Education including SIPTU, IMPACT, TUI, IFUT and the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) so far. FACTS ABOUT LOANS America's student loan debt ($1tn+) is greater in value than the combined economies of Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia. In other words, American students owe the combined value of all transactions in those countries in a year. Home-ownership in under-40s in New Zealand has drastically fallen since the introduction of student loans, from 57% to 25%.” Charging no tuition-related fees, Germany has 41 universities that are considered by Times Higher Education to be among the best in the world. In France, where they have registration fees of under €200, there are 27. 70% of the 2015 college graduates in the UK are not expected to ever repay their college loans, according to The Institute of Fiscal Studies.

Our local businesses, environment and democracy are under threat from a trade deal currently being negotiated between the EU Commission and the USA. The deal is called TTIP and could outlaw local authorities’ support of local businesses, allow multinational corporations to sue us if councils deny fracking permits and open up services like water, health and education to privatisation. What’s up for grabs are the rules and regulations that force corporations to abide by standards that protect our health, our rights, our jobs, services and the environment. These regulations for example stop corporations releasing chemicals and products into the market before they are proven to be safe. They also make sure workers get their rights and that local communities are protected from environmental disasters. But if TTIP goes ahead corporations will get to have a say on policies that govern our daily lives - before we or even politicians get to see them. And if they don’t like the rules they will be able to sue governments when they make changes or bring in new policies that could potentially affect their profits. Right now in Canada a fracking company Lone Pine Resources Inc., is suing the government for its decision to not allow fracking in Quebec. They are able to do this because of an ISDS clause in another trade deal. In Egypt the government was sued by water company Veolia for attempting to bring in a minimum wage. Germany is being sued by Swedish energy company Vatenfall for €4.7 billion because of Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power. TTIP also removes barriers to US companies who want to sell their products in Europe. Right now the sale of US beef in Europe is very limited. Hormone injected beef is banned outright. Hundreds of councils across Europe have already said they don’t want TTIP. Because of people power politicians are waking up to the threat TTIP poses and to the fact that people aren’t going to stand aside and let our democracy and rights be sold off. In addition to that a similar Trade agreement named CETA if the TTPIP fails will deliver a similar agreement between the EU and Canada, with similar legal provisions thus providing a backdoor for the same restrictive legal provisions to be implemented: CETA summary: http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/16-03CETA_ES.pdf

The decisions that in amateur sport of boxing are making a mockery of the sport. How can one country appoint 7 of its own members into a committee into a ruling body and then make a decision that no boxer can make inquiry into the decision that has been made. Just look at the decisions that were made in the so called fair Olympics. A complete mockery of boxing is going on and has to be stopped before amateur boxing is destroyed.

There is a severe shortage of spaces for secondary school kids in rural Ireland and CIE refuses to sanction extra buses to meet the demand

The Marine Institute has applied for a 35 year lease for an offshore electricity generating station in Galway Bay off of Spiddal. There are 5 applications relating to this all to be found on www.environ.ie. Although, there have been a couple of public meetings about this, the most recent meeting in the Connemara Coast revealed that a huge amount of people have very little or no information about what this entails. Indeed, there are too many Galwegians and Clare people who have no idea that this is the plan for Galway Bay. We would like to inform people of the details and have asked the Marine Institute and Simon Coveney, who has the power to sign off on this, for more time to examine the applications and the consequences for Galway Bay and its surroundings. Please help us spread the word quickly as we only have until August 2nd for submissions on this. Unless our TDs and Councillors stall the deadline for us.

Our Judges continuously hand down suspended or short sentences to rapists and those found guilty of sexual assault in this country, including those who sexually assault children. We do not accept these sentences which legitimise the rape of both adults and children and allow dangerous and violent criminals to walk freely on our streets. Enough is enough. If our judges are unable to punish those who have committed these abhorrent crimes, then we call for their resignations from their positions.

NAMA owns Lynams hotel in the middle of O'Connell St. This 47 bed hotel currently hosts many homeless families as 'Emergency Accommodation' -- a last resort for families hit by economic evictions with nowhere else to go. It could host many more -- every single day families are refused and sent to 'self accommodate' which means they have to source their own hotel by phoning every hotel in the city. Lynams hotel can hold more than 40 families and ensure none of these children are left on the streets. NAMA want to privatise this hotel, selling it back to speculators and developers at a huge discount so they can make huge profits from us again. We wont let this happen! Join our fight for a better city, against homelessness, against privatisation, against rent increases and against elite corruption.