The country is in the midst of the worst public health crisis in living memory. Student nurses are taking huge risks to provide the care we badly need at this time. They need to be paid for doing this. Last week the HSE and Simon Harris opened up a massive recruitment drive for workers - yet we asking skilled professionals to do unpaid work.

Both the Abortion Rights Campaign and the Government want to keep people safe during this emergency. It is in all of our interest to minimise the strain on our healthcare system and to prevent people who are not sick from coming into contact with those who are. Remote consultation is already in use in Ireland by, for example, VideoDoc and Spectrum Health, and more recently, by individual GPs as they adapt to the current crisis. Providing abortion consultations remotely has proven safe, effective, and acceptable in other jurisdictions. We urge the Minister for Health to clarify that an in-person visit is not required in order to satisfy the Act and put appropriate protocols in place. We urge the Minister for Justice to assure doctors they will not be prosecuted if they offer medical abortion remotely at this time. Sign the petition and let the Government know you support those who need to access abortion services, healthcare workers and all those working in the health sector.

Randox received £23 million in public funds through Invest NI in 2018, and benefited from a research partnership with our two universities QUB and UU. Now they are selling at an extortionate price (£120 per test) at a time when people are worried about food and job security and how they'll keep a roof over their heads. Meanwhile our NHS is struggling as they don't have enough tests so that key healthcare professionals can continue to do their vital work on the frontline of the fight against this global pandemic. Demand that Randox releases the Covid-19 tests free of charge to the NHS and stops profiteering from this crisis. See: https://www.randoxhealth.com/product/coronavirus-covid-19-home-testing-kit/ and: https://www.randox.com/tag/invest-ni/

Universal Basic Income will reach all members of society and will fill the many gaps in current provisions. It will fund basic living costs, help everyone to spend money in the real everyday economy and facilitate people to do essential caring and voluntary work. [1] The payment will promote stability in the crisis. It will also serve as an investment that will help society and the economy to recover and flourish when the immediate crisis has passed. This petition calls for a Universal Basic Income of *at least* €203 per week, because this is the current maximum rate of Jobseeker’s Benefit and other core social welfare benefits. Basic Income Ireland has always maintained that current benefit levels are inadequate and that the level of UBI should be based on the real cost of living. Although some people will receive higher payments during the current emergency, these are temporary. Universal Basic Income is universal, unconditional, and permanent, and so provides basic financial security to everyone. In introducing Universal Basic Income, the Irish government will lead the way in valuing all members of society as active participants in working through the Covid-19 crisis and beyond. For more details, please visit https://basicincome.ie/covid19 NOTES: [1] David McWilliams, ‘This is the time for economics with a human face’, Irish Times 21/3/20. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/david-mcwilliams-this-is-the-time-for-economics-with-a-human-face-1.4207017 Daniel Susskind, ‘Universal Basic Income is an affordable and feasible response to coronavirus’, Financial Times 18/3/20. https://www.ft.com/content/927d28e0-6847-11ea-a6ac-9122541af204?fbclid=IwAR0NAlBBfia_KzFrId6BZykOR5GHKgUv4Ari4y1G4SRvf8DdnPDKAAvscrc House of Commons Early Day Motion #302: Temporary universal basic income. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/56765/temporary-universal-basic-income ‘Calls for UK basic income payment to cushion coronavirus impact’, The Guardian 19/3/20 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/calls-for-uk-basic-income-payment-to-cushion-coronavirus-impact ‘Why more than 500 political figures and academics globally have called for universal basic income in the fight against coronavirus’, Independent 18/3/20. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/coronavirus-universal-basic-income-ubi-poverty-economy-business-migrants-a9408846.html

To save as many souls as is possible

To save lives, to reduce pressure on health service, to lead the way as a European nation showing how to halt this virus in its tracks.

Covid-19 shows us all who the real key workers are in our society. As they continue to work to treat the sick, support the vulnerable and keep the country going, they must be provided with the equipment tha will keep them safe and stop the virus spreading.

This is a major challenge to the health well being of all our communities. It is crucial to stop the spread of the infection. It is recognizing the right of all to health and life.

There is an element of the Irish population that doesn’t seem to understand the consequences of social distancing during a time when Covid 19 is infecting more people and we have yet to develop a vaccine

The Coronavirus is beyond politics. Now is the time for all who live on this island, to stand together to face this common threat. An emergency plan must be put in place to protect us all, and prioritising those most at risk such as care home residents, asylum seekers, older people, and the homeless.

A toxic combination of being cut off from family and friends, shut refuges, financial hardship, loss of work, closed schools and community services means women experiencing violence are in great danger because of Covid19. The Courts are barely open and even though they say they'll continue to hear emergency domestic violence cases, it's clear that it victims won't be able to get emergency barring orders because all other services they need - from childcare, support workers, transport, legal advice will be either non-existent or too hard to access. Its not clear what will happen if we are ordered to go into full lockdown. Women and children experiencing violence will effectively be locked in with violent partners - and no support system. The Istanbul Convention to which Ireland is a signatory requires for special measures to be taken to prevent and protect women from gender-based violence. 22 other European Countries that are signatories to the Istanbul Convention have already granted special powers to police to make Emergency Barring Orders Regions that have already seen large numbers of Covid-19 cases such as China and have taken measures to reduce the spread by confining people to their homes have reported significant increases in incidents of domestic violence. The time to act is now. About Sisi Sisi is a collective of survivors of intimate abuse in Ireland. It formed in Aug 2018 as an action group and voice for women. This is a unique survivor led platform in Ireland, and is a highly innovative way to bring lived survivor experience to inform state institutions and policies. Our vision is an Ireland where women are free from violence, including sexual abuse and coercive control. Our mission is to support women survivors of violence, including domestic abuse and coercive control, to be leaders, and to grow and develop utilizing their lived experiences and by taking collective action in the pursuit of freedom, equality and structural change.

As the full scale of the public health challenge posed by the coronavirus becomes clear, there is cause for concern around the ability of the two tier health system to cope with the projected number of cases. In the Republic of Ireland there are 5.2 intensive care unit (ICU) beds per 100,000 people (249 total and a further 5.3 per 100k in the North). This is against an EU average of 11.5 ICU beds per 100k. In Italy, where the outbreak is currently at its worst, there are 12.5 ICU beds per 100k and Iran, there are 4.6 per 100k. In terms of ICU bed capacity, we are closer to Iran than we are to Italy or the European average. When it comes to ICU staffing - we have less than half the number of Intensive Care consultants that state-commissioned audits have recommended and a critical shortage of ICU nursing staff too. This is the legacy of underfunding in public healthcare and of failure by the traditional governing parties to take the concerns of frontline health professionals seriously. Private hospitals in the South have between 40 and 50 ICU beds, plus surgical beds that could be repurposed for intensive care in some cases. In a letter from the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) to members across Europe last week, Italian doctors reported roughly 10% of #Covid19 cases required ICU care. If cases approach the levels that epidemiological models predict, this would mean chaos for patients, staff and public health. Covid-19 is exposing private medicine for the sham it is. Private hospitals, insurers and pharmaceutical companies have profited off the erosion of the public system, while people suffer. We desperately need to move to a well-funded, single-tier national health service that takes care of people according to medical need and not the size of their wallets. To deal with this crisis, the state should immediately move to bring private ICU and other beds into public control to meet demand as cases increase. Private staff should be seconded to the public system as required and health professionals in the public system should be consulted to ensure adequate staffing and resources.