Donegal is a county which is deprived and often neglected by the Government and by corporations. As customers of Three Ireland we feel we deserve the same service as those in other areas who are charged the same rates for better quality internet. We ask that Three Ireland improve the quality of their internet for their customers in Donegal. We'd also like Three to make it clear once and for all as to to whether there is upgrade work being done in the county and when do they expect the work to be completed. Finally we ask for a reduction in the rates until such a time as we in Donegal receive the same standard of service as those in areas with high quality internet.

Poor infrastructure has led to the Northwest region being underdeveloped. Most young people leave the region in search of better job opportunities. This inturn has lead to the region being sparsely populated and thus is seen as unimportant.

Our Doctor in Sneem will retire in October. During 33 years the village and the wider region of Sneem have been looked after by an outstanding, caring and deeply committed professional. But now the time has come to turn the page. We all know that Sneem needs a new doctor. Not only the elderly need a doctor, not only our Pharmacy needs a doctor in order to stay open, not only the young families in the town and the many visitors we welcome each year, also the groceries and all the shops and businesses depend on the presence of a local doctor in Sneem. As we live two and a half hours away from the nearest hospital, and forty minutes from Kenmare where the nearest doctor would be and no bus service to get us there, it is of vital importance that we have a doctor appointed for Sneem. We invite you to sign this petition and to ask your family and friends to help us make known all over Ireland that Sneem is looking forward to welcome and to support a new doctor.

Petition Update December 2020: In mid-December, we are going to deliver this petition and letters signed by both civil society groups from across the globe and members of the Houses of the Oireachtas urging Minister Eamon Ryan to support the granting of a money message from the Government so the Climate Emergency Bill can progress to committee stage as soon as possible. Petition Update September 2020: Not Here Not Anywhere has been campaigning to ban offshore drilling since 2017, and in that time we have seen progress and changes in government policy. In the 2020 Programme for Government agreed by Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and Greens stated the following on oil and gas drilling "End the issue of new licenses for the exploration and extraction of gas, on the same basis as the recent decision concerning oil exploration and extraction" [1]. Now that Eamon Ryan is the Minister for Climate Action, he has the power to legislate and ban offshore oil and gas drilling outright. Recently, we submitted a Parliamentary question to find out when the legislation when going to be enacted. We got the below response from Minister Ryan "While there is no requirement for legislative underpinning, I and my Department will evaluate whether any further actions would be useful in terms of providing maximum clarity." [2]. We disagree with the Minister’s assessment, if the current government falls with no legislation passed it could lead to future licenses been issued under a new administration. Also, if legislation was passed it would be a major victory for the climate movement both in Ireland and globally and we would be joining other countries around the world which have shown this climate leadership [3]. We need to shed our climate laggard status, legislate to ban offshore oil and gas drilling, and KEEP IT IN THE GROUND. Original petition: On 11th July, just one week after onshore fracking was banned in Ireland, Minister of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Denis Naughten, granted consent to oil & gas drilling by Providence Resources PLC in the Porcupine Basin off our south-west coast [4]. They expect to find 5 billion barrels of oil [5]. In an Orwellian twist, a “Department of Climate Action” has allowed for the burning of 5 billion barrels of oil when international climate experts state that 80% of the known fossil fuels have to stay in the ground if we want to avoid going over the safe 2 degrees limit of global warming [6]. Any investment in fossil fuel industry and infrastructure will result in what is known as “carbon lock-in”, taking us on a one-way unstoppable trip to dangerous levels of global warming that threaten global health and eco-systems [7]. Oil and gas exploration is also deadly for Ireland’s unique dolphin, whale and porpoise population [8] and plankton, the basis of the marine ecosystem [9]. Yet, Minister Naughten has refused to confirm if drilling will stop if a threat to the population is found [10]. We call on Minister Naughten to retract the Providence Resources permit immediately. Furthermore, we call on the Minister to follow the lead of France [11] and ban all new oil and gas exploration in Irish waters. We need to halt all dead investments in the fossil fuel industry and prepare a just transition to an economy that can provide workers with real, sustainable long-term jobs that can provide for their families and their future [12]. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [1]https://www.greenparty.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-06-15-ProgrammeforGovernment_Corrected-Final-Version.pdf [2]https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2020-09-15/162/#pq_162 [3]https://www.looptt.com/content/new-zealand-next-list-ban-offshore-drilling [4] http://www.independent.ie/business/world/providence-resources-commences-drilling-off-the-southwest-coast-of-ireland-35921724.html [5] http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/amp/news/180745 [6] http://www.carbontracker.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Unburnable-Carbon-Full-rev2-1.pdf [7]http://priceofoil.org/2016/09/22/the-skys-limit-report/ [8] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2014/02/140228-atlantic-seismic-whales-mammals/ [9] https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/23/15861932/offshore-drilling-airgun-seismic-surveys-zooplankton-death-oceans [10] https://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2017-02-07a.382 [11]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-ban-new-oil-gas-exploration-stop-granting-licences-macron-hulot-renewable-energy-drive-a7806161.html [12] http://www.impact.ie/climate-change-workers-communities-must-protected-just-transition-carbon-free-economy-says-impact/

This is important because these three areas are in the county of Tipperary and that is where all locals have voted previously. This is a decision that they were not consulted on and which has left many people infuriated. All three areas will now be left in a situation where they will vote in Tipperary in local elections and in Limerick City for Dáil Éireann elections. This leaves all areas in a precarious situation. The economic interests of all areas are best suited in Tipperary, where local and national politicians can work together in the best interest of the areas.

Micháel Martin is calling for the bigger parties on the Dáil to be given more speaking time than smaller parties. This is undemocratic and unfairly targets parties with less TD's, and those they represent.

The CEO of An Post has said he will close over 250 post offices in sparsely populated areas, this year. This is totally unacceptable, it cannot be justified that because an area is sparsely populated, a post office is not necessary. It is more important than ever,as rural post offices are an essential part of the community, providing many services other than just to post letters. Among these are pensions, banking, phone top-up, paying bills, to name but a few. This is totally unacceptable. I live in Carrigaholt on the Loop Head Peninsula where our main industry is tourism. It is an area of approximately 1200 sq km, and unfortunately we fit the criteria. Our post office is already the only remaining one out of an original 5. People are already travelling over 15km to use it's services, and to expect them to journey even further is disgusting. I understand that An Post has to make money, but closing post offices and putting up postage is not the way. Install broadband in the post office, even more services can be accessed, more people will use the post office. If the paperwork is made redundant by the post office being "on-line" that alone will generate enough income to run the rural business. Carrigaholt Post Office is the heart of our village. It offers local and tourist information as well as the expected services, it is a meeting place where many go to socialise, it is so much more than is expected by An Post, but not by a rural community. The only time some people go out is to collect the pension and those that have to rely on others to get them there will be unable to collect it, or carry out other transactions if the nearest post office is even further away. It is no good telling us we can have our pensions paid into the bank as we have no permanent bank to do so, this also means travelling. Local businesses use the post office every day for things like coinage and fliers. They would be affected greatly by it's closure. To take away our post office would be to take the heart from our community. It would kill it! Whenever a business has to make "financial cuts", it's always the rural areas that are looked at first, not larger urban ones. This is because financially, country areas have very little to offer large corporate organisations. It matters nothing to these people that we are left with very little, or that to use the post office will involve over an hour's time to do the minimum business. What we do have though is our pride and affection for our local post office, and so now is the time to let the country know that we won't accept the closures!!

People are losing contact with people leading to poorer mental health. Libraries are ideal places to have a chat with someone. Also working there is a lovely satisfying job.

Ulster Bank made a commitment to customers in 2010 never to close the last Bank in town. When the AIB in Raphoe closed your Bank poached customers from AIB on the basis that the Ulster Bank wasn’t going anywhere. When Ulster Bank closed their office in Lifford and transferred its customers to Raphoe your Bank assured those customers that Ulster Bank in Raphoe was there to stay. Do these commitments mean anything to you? How can the Bank now break these commitments and turn their back on their customers, the community and their staff? The people, staff and businesses of our towns need these branches. To close them is to break your Banks commitments and abandon our towns. Please reverse your decision or customers will withdraw their business from Ulster Bank for good. We will not be transferred to other Ulster Bank branches.

Scooters Youth Club calls for reinstatement of services in Rathangan “There is not enough people harming themselves, is that why they took away the services? Do more people have to die in order for us to get services in Rathangan?” Evan Dowling, junior leader, Scooters Youth Club Young people of Rathangan are outraged after hearing the news that the funding for both the local youth counselling service and the youth worker are being cut by the HSE. A group of young people currently volunteering as junior leaders in Scooters Youth Club Rathangan have come together to express concerns for themselves, their peers and the next generation of young people after it has been confirmed that the HSE will no longer fund youth services in the area. The part time positions of both the counsellor and youth worker will cease by the end of April after almost three years. The positions, originally funded on a six monthly basis following a large number of suicides in a short period of time in the area have been renewed several times in the past, however the HSE have confirmed that the funding will cease at the end of the current contracts. We are asking people who are interested in getting involved in our campaign to follow our progress on social media on Snapchat Twitter Rathangan S.O.S and Facebook Rathangan S.O.S to support our Uplift campaign. Local TD’s, councillors and other stakeholders are currently being contacted to meet with the group of young people to discuss the impact of losing the services in the area and to devise a possible action plan. Strategies and possible solutions have been identified by the group such as; HSE selling their empty properties in Rathangan in order to fund the services, or the possibility of a mobile counsellor which services other areas as well as Rathangan. The loss of the youth worker now means that the youth café in the newly refurbished community centre will only open four hours per week compared to the current twenty three hours of use. Lisa Ennis a volunteer in Scooters Youth Club said; “The Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs published a best practice guide for Youth Café’s in Ireland which clearly states that ‘the work within a youth café needs to be supported by trained professionals, such as youth workers’, it is not good enough for the state to provide us with funding for a space and take away funding for a youth worker to run it, nor is it good enough for our counselling service to be taken away with no alternative put in place. We feel as if we are being abandoned by the state after a plaster was put over the issue, but if we do not address the roots of access to transport and services, unemployment, inequality, isolation and poverty in our village the issues will arise again”. Evan Dowling a junior leader in Scooters Youth Club said; “There is not enough people harming themselves, is that why they took away the services? Do more people have to die in order for us to get services in Rathangan?” Unfortunately the issues faced by the young people of Rathangan are a common feature in Ireland today and in particular in rural Ireland, although funding for youth services was increased by 2.5% in last year’s budget the youth sector has seen an overall cut of 28.5% since 2008. Additionally access to transport and rural isolation remains a national issue with rural isolation being a reoccurring theme in the government’s new Action Plan for Rural Development. The government need to invest more in areas such as Rathangan in order to create happier and more sustainable communities.

URGENT: A family are to be evicted from their home on Ferrycarrig halting site tomorrow Monday the 20th of March if we don't convince Wexford County Council to withdraw their complaint from An Gardaí. The family have small children and the council have failed to provide suitable alternative accommodation. But, if enough of us sign the petition and send it to Wexford County Council before tomorrow - we could make them change their mind and withdraw their complaint.

Because Castlerea Fire station has the largest area to cover. It covers Castlerea, Ballymoe, Ballintubber, Ballinagar, Fairymount, Loughlynn, Ballinlough, Williamstown, Glenamaddy, Castleplunket, Kilmurray, Cloobonife, Trien this side of Frenchpark and boardering Mayo and Galway. It has the most emergency calls in the county. People's lives are at risk.