Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where an opt-out system is not yet in place. It's wrong that people and children's lives are at risk because of the DUP boycott at Stormont. The Secretary of State must use his powers to put this law in place now.

Because until members of Dail Eireann are insulated from the horrors of the public health service there will be no impetus to tackle a problem that has existed for many years well before the arrival of COVID and computer glitches. This problem existed when the country was awash with money.

An ambulance person shouldn't have to wait 3 hours to get a stretcher back form a hospital and put themselves at risk at viruses and bugs. Also our elderly shouldn't be on corridors. They fought for our country to be treated like this

Our hospitals are more overcrowded than ever before. There are almost 1,000 patients without beds in Irish hospitals today as the trolley crisis hits a new record high. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said this is the largest number of patients left without a hospital bed since the union started counting trolley figures in 2006. Hospitals are now dangerously overcrowded. The Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) has advised the worst-hit hospitals to enact emergency protocols. In 2020, in anticipation of possible surges in hospitals, the Irish government reached an agreement with private hospitals to access their capacity for three months to alleviate pressure on the public system, as part of its comprehensive response to the pandemic. The overcrowing situation in Irish hospitals is now critical and so we're asking the government to respond to this crisis in the same way they did the Covid-19 crisis when they reached agreements with private hospitals to ease capacity in public hospitals. Allowing public patients to use private hospitals is the fastest way to alleviate the current dangers facing patients and staff in overcrowded public hospitals.

There is nothing more important to us as a nation than to care for, nurture, protect and preserve the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren. A very close second is the need to protect and preserve our natural environment for those generations that follow us, who will depend upon it. A recent submission to the Citizens Assembly examining Bio-Diversity Loss in Ireland confirmed that our natural freshwaters are being deliberately, unlawfully polluted by 5000 defective (leaking) slurry/effluent storage tanks that were built on NI farms, thousands of which were built in the border counties of Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Armagh. * Updated to: https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/396_Redacted.pdf The toxic contents leaking from those defective tanks pollute/poison local streams rivers and lakes that flow across the 310mile border and pollute/poison the freshwaters in the border counties of Donegal, Leitrim, Cavan, Monaghan, Louth and the counties beyond them, killing the marine life and flora and fauna that exist in those freshwaters and causing/contributing to the pollution recorded by the EPA in their reports. RTE reported the EPA Studies that confirm the levels of pollution in our natural freshwaters. https://www.rte.ie/news/environment/2022/1014/1329164-epa-water-quality/ https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/1020/1330259-epa-sewage-report/ Those streams, rivers and lakes are the source of the water that we all use/drink every day. Think of this when you pour your next cup of tea/coffee or hand your child a glass of tap-water to drink. *Update: On 26-01-23 the European Commission referred Ireland to the European Court over its failures to protect its freshwaters from pollution and maintain acceptable standards of drinking water.* Please sign this petition and forward it to your elected representative and please also share it with your friends and family and ask them to do the same.

Every empty house is a family made homeless. While hundreds of people have died on the streets, the government left €700 million of the housing budget unspent. There is an all-time high of 11,397 people in emergency accommodation, 3,480 are children. Vacant council homes have been left to rot. There are nearly 4,500 empty council homes across the country. We demand that all city and county councils renovate these homes and house those in need immediately.

The traffic issues around our school with HGV usage have been exacerbated by Brexit and now pose life-threatening risks to the children of Kilrane National School everyday and to the residents of the Kilrane area. In summary; Kilrane has been subjected to years of bad planning practices, Brexit has now made these HGV traffic issues around our school far far worse. The safety issues around our national school are now at a life-threatening stage since the implementation of Brexit. And it is our fear that it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured at the school. The long-term future of Kilrane and Rosslare Harbour as a livable residential areas is in danger, as well as the future of our very valuable tourist industry which is based around the affected area. We wish for the businesses involved to stay in the Kilrane/Rosslare Harbour area as we have no issue with the businesses involved, just with their current proposed locations. So we call on Wexford County Council to honour their promises to solve our traffic issues and to honour their statutory obligations to the residents, especially our children, and reject the planning permission application for a new haulage depot in Kilrane Business Park. The granting of such would be catastrophic for our children. Our detailed objection letter will be ready shortly and we will make it public. Please sign this petition by the 2nd of November 2022.

Sign this petition to let your voice be heard We have had no information and no apology regarding the unsafe tap water. The public water quality is considerably compromised and a serious risk to your health if you consume it. This should in a written statement to every household affected. There should also be a notice that the water will damage and break appliances i.e kettle, dishwasher, washing machines etc We need an disposal unit for electrical and plastic waste caused by this issue and compensation for broken appliances. There is a good article here on how Maganese can be toxic and dangerous to our health. https://labs.selfdecode.com/blog/manganese-toxicity/ If you are worried that you have symptoms , you can contact your G.P and book some tests. Vitamin E and Milk Thistle may help to to combat manganese toxicity.

Insufficient Childcare in Ireland for babies under 1 year Some mums have to switch to formula feeding after breastfeeding for 6 months as they go back to work Ireland is one of the worst countries in the EU for Maternity Leave entitlements.

Cateracts can effect anyone but they mostly effect elderly people. A cloud grows over the eye making it difficult to see. It only gets worst and the only treatment is surgery. But the good news is that the 20-30min surgery is very effective and the pateints sight is returning to them only days after the procedure. The surgery is 95% successful. This surgery was routinely performed on out pateints in district hospitals in the 1960s but in recent decades fewer consultants in the public system are available to perform the procedure and so people are left on waiting lists for 5-6 years. You can avail of the cross border scheme. This involves being accessed by your GP and referred to the HSE cateract waiting list, then making arrangements with a clinic abroad that offers this surgery under the cross border scheme, book an appointment with their consultant on the day before the procedure, arranging your travel and accommodation and paying in advance the full amount, approx €2500 per eye, then actually going abroad, some require you have someone accompany you, have the surgery and get paper work completed by consultant and finally sending off same to HSE for about 90% reimbursment 9-10 weeks later. Then repeat the whole thing if you need treatment on a second eye. This is no way to treat our older people, specially when they are at their most vulnerable. By the HSE employing more eye consultants the waiting list for cateract removal can be reduced and eliminated and a local, efficient and humane service restored.

An Post were amazing during the pandemic and really showed how they could improve the lives of the more vulnerable in our community. They offered free postage for Packets up to 2KG to Nursing Homes. This enabled carepack.ie to leverage the humanity all across Ireland to get 13,000 Gifts to residents in 2020 and 20,000 to residents in 2021. The Service halted in March 2022 , but we would love to see it back again , please !

The HSE have received a recommendation to restrict the option of homebirth, under the HSE Home Birth Scheme, to women giving birth no further than 30 minutes from a maternity hospital. This is not backed by any research concluding that women are at a greater risk outside this parameter. Women should be guaranteed the right to choose their place of birth. Placing a restriction on homebirth, by limiting its availability to those who live less than 30 minutes from a maternity hospital, denies more than 20% of expectant mothers the right to this choice. This percentage is also a conservative figure and could actually be much higher. The current application form for the HSE homebirth service outlines the procedure for safe and timely transfer to hospital, if required, making special reference to women in 'remote' areas. These guidelines are backed by evidence based studies and so, no change should be made to these guidelines, which would result in the violation of a woman's right to choice, without extensive research. It is also important to note that women availing of the home birth scheme must meet a strict set of criteria and only women who are deemed low risk, by an obstetrician, can avail of this service. It is feared that by limiting the option of homebirth to a large number of expectant mothers, there will be an increase in the number of "free-births" (births without a professional midwife present). Furthermore, homebirth in Ireland is also provided by Private Midwives Ireland, as well as the HSE. If the provision of a public homebirth scheme continues to be restricted, this means that it will be families on lower incomes - those without private health care or the means to pay a private midwife - that will be affected by these restrictions. Lastly, the publishing of these recommendations perpetuate the fear surrounding birth in our society, leading to connotations that birth is something that consistently leads to medical emergencies, rather than something that is a physiologically natural process, without the need for medical intervention, for the majority of women. Women deserve the right to choose the kind of birth they want. Women need to be given the autonomy and trust to make this choice based on accurate and evidence based information. We also need to have confidence in our community midwives, the professionals who, with their extensive training and experience, know exactly how to keep a woman safe during homebirth.