Having fresh water available publicly will help reduce the use of single use plastics. The European Parliament recently voted to ban single use plastics. Under the proposed directive, items such as plastic straws, cotton swabs, disposable plastic plates and cutlery would be banned by 2021, and 90 per cent of plastic bottle recycled by 2025. This is a clampdown on the top culprits of plastic products that most often end up in the ocean. Lightweight single-use items such as plastic bottles can easily travel long distances and damage marine flora and fauna. The 2107 Waste Reduction Bill, which proposes an Irish ban on single-use plastics, and a deposit and return scheme (DRS) on plastic bottles and aluminium cans, has passed initial stages in the Oireachtas. It takes three times the volume of water to manufacture one bottle of water than it does to fill it, and because of the chemical production of plastics that water is mostly unusable. When you pick up a water bottle at the supermarket, hold it up and imagine it filled ¼ with oil. That’s how much in fossil fuels it took just to manufacture a single bottle. In Ireland, we produce the equivalent of nearly 2,000 water bottles, or 5,550 disposal coffee cups, per person annually. Ireland is the top producer of plastic waste in Europe; generating an average of 61kgs per person every year - almost double what the UK produces. By introducing drinking fountains, we can make a conscious effort to reduce our plastic waste and protect West Cork's rich environment and food industry. Cork County Council have told me that they are considering this initiative but I want to show them that there is significant interest and support. I hope that with enough signatures we can make this goal a reality.

The Liberties, is home to the Guinness Storehouse in South Inner City Dublin. 50,000 local people have no access to playing team sports, like football. Many local boys and men go to prison from this area. 11 local primary schools have really small playgrounds so they can't play much sport. This means they might get unhealthy and overweight. John Lonergan, who used to be the boss of Mountjoy Prison has said that a lot of prisoners in Mountjoy have always come from the Liberties. He said it is because they don't have enough to do in the area, to keep them busy. This is the last plot of derelict land in The Liberties, that can fit a big grass sports pitch for team games like Football, Hurling or Rugby. The boss of Dublin City Council, Richard Shakespeare wants to build a big waste depot, but he needs to get the local Dublin City Councillors to go along with him. At the moment, the only use is for recreational, so he can't build a big waste depot without their help. The land is really close to the Guinness Enterprise Centre and the Guinness Storehouse. A local pitch would help people working there, to do sport. 10 million euro has been invested on the Guinness Enterprise Centre, so that it can get bigger by 65%, making it a business superhub. The Guinness Storehouse is one of the best tourist places to go in Ireland. In 2023 1.5 million visitors from 165 countries. Visitor numbers are down from 2017 when they were 1.7 million. . The Chief Executive must give people living and working in the Liberties, the chance to play sport. He must act on the advice of Ex Mountjoy Prison Boss John Lonergan, and make the area near the Guinness Enterprise Centre and Guinness Storehouse better. The plans for the sports pitch are ready, and the land is zoned 'recreational'. We ask the Chief Executive to please build the sports pitch, not a big waste depot.

There are both health and financial benefits with the scheme. Small practical steps like this will save money, reduce the use of plastics and improve our environment. It is the first of many, and a small practical step to stem the tide of single use plastics & therefor plastic pollution, and of course provide free and safe drinking water in areas of high pedestrian footfall such as Salthill Promenade and our various parks. Unlike many European countries, Ireland took explicit ownership of natural resources in its 1937 Constitution. Water, as well as the nation’s other resources, ‘belong to the State’. Since the introduction of Irish Water in 2013 the infrastructure is already in place to easily implement such a scheme if the political will is there. Dublin city Councils are working with 'Cool Planet' with an aim to reduce the use of single-use plastics and we enourage Galway City and County Councils to follow suit. South Dublin County Council also plans to examine the provision of public water fountains by assessing suitable locations. Fingal County Council recently installed a public water fountain at Howth in an effort to reduce plastic waste and introduce water sustainability measures, a second fountain is due to be installed at Malahide Demesne.

Markievicz Leisure Centre - managed by Dublin City Council - is the only available 25m public pool in Dublin City Centre. Thousands use this public pool and gym. Local children learn to swim there. In addition, up to 150 people could lose their homes because the apartments above the pool and 8 homes on Townsend Street will also be demolished with the current project. There is already a housing crisis in the city.

We have lost 60% of Wildlife and biodiversity in the World since the 1970's. We are destroying wildlife habitat and replacing it for Palm Oil Plantations, to produce 'cheap' vegetable oil. Most products don't even need the ingredient as they had the same product before using palm oil. Do You know what Palm Oil is? Did you know that Palm oil is in most biscuits, cakes, crisps, chocolate bars, snacks, sweets, ice cream, crackers? It's in soap, shampoo, makeup and cleaning products? It's in drinks and health products too? It is the most consumed vegetable oil in the world and you probably don't even realise you're eating it!! Did you know that 60% of Wildlife has been removed since the 1970's? Palm oil doesn't need to be in any products we buy. It is there because its cheap and the industry wants to sell more and more of it. 180,000 Orangutans have disappeared in the last 100 years, due to hunting, capturing and now in the past 20 years the Palm Oil Industry. This Petition is a cry for help, It is to ask everyone and anyone to STOP buying palm oil products. Please take the time and JUST read the ingredients to see if what you are buying is apart of this massive environmental crisis. Stop buying products with Palm oil which support destruction. If you like your chocolate bars, just buy one that is organic and without palm oil and enjoy it more. We need to make a collective change in how we shop, buy and support the whole environment. We also need to start realizing that we have the power to make the change. Not allowing governments and corporations to make decisions for us, empowers us to make the right choices and in turn, the corporations and governments will have to follow US !! We have a massive opportunity to come together and fight for something that is bigger than ourselves. We all need the environment to support us. We need to start working with holistic systems, design, and management that carries good ethics, values, and morals with them. Please sign this petition but most importantly STOP BUYING Palm Oil Products, period. NO MORE. let's act together with our hearts, our heads and our consumer choice.

Repealing the 8th Amendment was only half the battle. Without ready access to abortion and other services, REPEAL will mean little. With the new maternity hospital costing the state at least €350 million and set to be built on land owned by the sisters of charity and run by a board appointed by them, this access will be compromised. Despite its name, the National Maternity Hospital is a private Catholic corporation. The hospital recently agreed to be taken over by a private company owned by the Sisters of Charity, St Vincent's Healthcare Group (SVHG), which manages the nuns' three hospitals. The National Maternity Hospital is now slated to get a new facility built by the government on land owned by the nuns. This new build will cost an estimated €350m. Contrary to what the Minister for Health has repeatedly claimed, the State will not own the new hospital. All the government will own are the bricks. Current plans will see the maternity hospital governed by the SVHG, and owned by a new private Catholic company to be set up by SVHG. The Minister claims the new hospital will be free of religious influence. Such claims ring hollow. With private ownership come legal powers and privileges. Private hospitals cannot be forced to provide services that conflict with their ethos. They cannot even be compelled to submit to independent inquiries into patient safety, as a High Court case taken by the same National Maternity Hospital against the Minister shows. The hospital recently won its case, blocking a HIQA inquiry following the death of a 34 year old woman during surgery at the hospital. The inaugural public meeting of the Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women's Healthcare on Saturday 20th October 2018 unanimously adopted the following Declaration, namely that: * the National Maternity Hospital be taken into public ownership as a condition of public funding; * the €350m earmarked for the new build be conditional on the change of ownership; * the new maternity hospital be governed by a new, secular charter fit for the 21st century; We are looking to groups that work on behalf of women and all genders, binary and non binary, that are impacted by issues that may traditionally be considered women's healthcare- organisations, students, trade unions, political parties, and others to endorse this Declaration and demand its immediate implementation. Help make the National Maternity Hospital ours, by joining our campaign. Urgent action is needed now: the Minister hopes to sign off on the first works in connection with the new build before the end of this year. Please sign our petition. ******* Join our public meeting this evening******** https://fb.me/e/WJm7zwEu Follow our campaign and help us to #MakeNMHOurs This petition was created by the Campaign Against Church Ownership of Women’s Healthcare.

Established in 1996, Lifeline Inishowen provides professional and confidential support to women and children who are experiencing or have experienced domestic abuse: physical, emotional, sexual or financial. The service's volunteers provide support to 54 families per year, on average. HSE funding was withdrawn in 2010. Although Lifeline receive a small sum from TUSLA towards their Child Counselling service, their main source of funding for the past 8 years has been donations through their own fundraising efforts, and their charity shop. Local support has been overwhelming, but is sadly not enough to secure the future of this vital service. Inishowen has a bigger population than Co Leitrim and a larger landmass than Co Louth. The only funded domestic violence support in the entire county of Donegal is located in Letterkenny – a 120km round-trip from Lifeline's Carndonagh base. This is simply impossible to access for Inishowen women and children in controlling and abusive households. Minister Zappone and TUSLA, we demand that the funding for Lifeline Inishowen's running costs is reinstated. The centralisation of domestic abuse services in a big, rural county like Donegal is disastrous for families in Inishowen. Closure of Lifeline will literally put lives at risk. Reinstate the funding to secure the future of these essential services in Inishowen. Lifeline Inishowen Charity nr: 19971

The current policy of criminalising addicts neither benefits users or society. We have the fourth highest overdose rate in Europe per capita. We've got to realise that we do not have control over drug addiction - we're allowing greedy people, the drug dealers, to sell drugs and destroy a lot of lives.

The Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translational Research (INFANT) is Ireland’s first dedicated perinatal research Centre. INFANT works to improve health outcomes for mothers and babies by focusing on clinical and health research and innovation in pregnancy, birth and early childhood. This is the only research Centre in Ireland focused on this work. Research focused on mothers and children must be prioritized.

ONLY DRUG THAT WILL SAVE KIDS LIVES WHO SUFFER FROM SMA

Too many people have to wait to get the vital mental health care they desperately need. While the Government continues to under invest in our services, people get sicker and even die waiting for assessment and treatment. This has to stop - our mental health is too important. Mental Health Reform have said that we need at least 105 million to get our mental health services where they need to be.

Drug Policy, and the war on drugs has had children, parents, politicians and stranger murdered in broad daylight. Thanks to gang activity, I myself shake and fear at the noise of bangers going off. The entire country lives in fear of gangs, gangs fed through drug money, drug money coming from the "black market". Little do they realise that the failing drug policy, the politicians and their lobbyists are directly financing this through their stern, "moral" views on dirty drugs. It is absolutely unacceptable. I am sick & tired of burying my friends and lending their brokenhearted families a soaking shoulder to cry on because the government failed them. The governmental position on drugs, the policy set in place in the early 1970's, has absolutely failed them. Where were you when they found their bodies, that nobody heard of because the news would rather report the stash of Class A narcotics they found in a shed, behind a burnt out house and a car filled with hand guns and machetes. Where were you and where are you now? What are you going to do to change this? My name is Sandy Brun, I am a qualified Toxicologist and I hope to graduate with a Master's degree in Neuroscience & Pharmacology. You can find me on LinkedIn. I am sick and tired of burying my friends with dirty drugs in their veins, up their noses and everywhere else. I am sick and tired of being let down by this never ending agonizing political situation that is murdering my friends and breaking the hearts of their families. I've lived in Ireland since I was 10 years old, and I've buried a friend every year since I was 13. You're so proud of the 100th 1916 Easter Rising anniversary that the country celebrated 2 years ago. You're so damn proud to be Irish. You're so damn prejudicial and soft. Stand and fight. For our sons and daughters.