Many people in our community are already struggling to make ends meet. This rent increase will add pressure to already struggling families and individuals living in council housing.

VERY IMPORTANT to stop this legislation by Minister Murphy as it will effect our ability to take a court case/ judicial review. Environmental groups outline shock at proposed planning Bill. Proposed legislative changes would make it almost impossible for citizens and environmental groups to challenge poor planning decisions in the courts. Ireland’s leading environmental coalition is shocked at the Minister for Housing’s attempt to introduce new planning legislation that would make it near impossible to challenge planning decisions in the courts and hold public authorities and the Government to account. The Environmental Pillar – a coalition of national environmental organisations – learned over the weekend of worrying developments with the Housing and Planning and Development Bill 2019 that is being brought forward by Minister Eoghan Murphy TD. In sum, the proposed Bill will add numerous challenging requirements and restrictions that will make it very hard for ordinary citizens and environmental NGOs to achieve the necessary “standing” to take cases. The changes proposed in the Bill would also add to the complexity of the court process and increases the risks of exposure to significant costs to those seeking to challenge bad planning decisions. This legislation would row back on major changes introduced just a few years ago to enable ordinary people, their organisations, and environmental NGOs to challenge bad environmental decisions. Those changes were already long overdue and necessary to comply with EU law and the Aarhus Convention. The Heads of the Bill sent to the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Housing, Planning and Local Government last week are very blunt that the proposed changes are designed to make it more difficult to engage in the legal process and appears to favour developer’s interests at the cost of environmental rights. The most worrying aspects (some of which are further explored below) of the proposed Bill are: • Complete change to existing cost rules for environmental cases from a system where costs should “not be prohibitively expensive” to a cost cap rules system with court discretion. This exposes the public and eNGOs to much higher costs and uncertainty, ensuring that many will be dissuaded from bringing a case in the first place and makes it harder to engage lawyers • Change in standing rights requirements for applicants from “sufficient interest” to “substantial interest” and a requirement that they must be “directly affected by a proposed development” and “in a way which is peculiar or personal”. This is in addition to a new requirement that the applicant must have had prior participation in the planning process. • Extension of the minimum time that an NGO must be in existence before it can challenge a planning decision from 12 months to 3 years, thereby essentially ruling out newly established citizen-led NGOs concerned with local environmental issues from bringing challenges • Insertion of a new requirement that NGOs must have a minimum of 100 affiliated members, thereby ruling out the vast majority of Irish groups from bringing challenges. • Increased requirements for the “leave” stage (where you get court permission to challenge). The Heads of the Bill propose going back to the abandoned “on notice” system and adding to the tests and complexity of the leave – this adds to the costs, duration and difficulty of court proceedings. “This legislation would row back on major changes introduced just a few years ago to enable ordinary people and small but committed environmental NGOs to legally challenge bad environmental decisions, without fear of incurring eye-watering costs and extensive obstacles to accessing justice.” “The explanation for the Bill is blatant about making it harder to challenge decisions, with the Department arguing that challenges cause delays. It is bad decisions, and flawed legislation however, that are the real issue driving litigation in this country and this Bill does nothing to address that. “Given the context of costs in our Irish planning system, the size and nature of organisations and the costs in our courts, this Bill is an extermination of environmental democracy and oversight. It is particularly chilling that it comes at a time when environmental protection has never been more important, and citizens and groups are mobilising in a powerful Green Wave given the endless failures of this Government and administration.

Two members of Veterans For Peace, Ken and Tarak, were arrested on St. Patrick's day 2019 (March 17) for going onto the airfield at Shannon Airport carrying a banner that said: 'U.S. Veterans say Respect Irish Neutrality U.S. War Machine out of Shannon Airport Veterans For Peace' They wanted to demand that police inspect a U.S.-military contracted plane believed to be carrying U.S. troops and weapons on their way to illegal wars in the Middle East. These flights, which have been passing through Shannon Airport since 2001, are in violation of Irish neutrality and international law. The 2 men were charged with Trespass and Causing Criminal Damage at Shannon airport. After being held in Limerick jail for nearly 2 weeks, Ken Mayers and Tarak Kauff were released on €2500 bail each and forced to surrender their passports. They have been unable to return home for over 7 months. The High Court will not reconsider their application to change their bail conditions until they can show that their trial is years off, which will be the case with the current backup of cases in the Dublin Circuit Court. Changing their bail conditions is key to getting their passports restored. The process the 2 peace activists are being forced to endure is a clear attempt to punish them before any trial takes place. Major Ken Mayers served 12 years in the US Marine Corps. He is a former National Board member of Veterans For Peace and participate in veterans peace team delegations to Palestine, Okinawa, Jeju Island, South Korea, and Standing Rock. Tarak Kauff was a paratrooper in the US Army during the early sixties. He was a member of the VFP National Board of Directors for six years. He has organized veterans delegations to Palestine, Okinawa, South Korea and Standing Rock. He is currently the managing editor of Peace In Our Times

Gross misappropriation of public money. 150 million of Irish taxpayer money given to two private UK companies under the guise of jobpath.

In 2017, the Port of Cork signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with NextDecade, a liquefied natural gas (LNG) development company. The MOU allows the Port of Cork to negotiate with NextDecade on the development of a new Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) and associated LNG import terminal infrastructure in Cork harbour. We are asking the Port of Cork to rescind this undertaking in the MOU for the following reasons: 1. Climate Change To keep global temperature rise below 1.5C and to avoid catastrophic climate change, fossil or “natural” gas must be phased out of the energy mix in Europe by 2035 [i]. Claims that gas is a “transition fuel” have been discredited ͥ[ii] and recent studies show that gas sourced through hydraulic fracturing, like 69% of all gas now produced in the United States ͥ[iii] and imported to Europe as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), is 44% more damaging to the climate than coal [iv]. Research also states that we can’t develop any new fossil fuel infrastructure from 2019 onwards if we are to have a 64% chance of limiting temperature rise to less than 1.5C [v]. 2. Fracking In 2017, fracking was banned in the Republic of Ireland due to its devastating health and environmental impacts [vi]. If the Cork LNG infrastructure is developed it will facilitate the importation of fracked gas from the planned NextDecade export terminals in the Rio Grande Valley region in Texas. Allowing this infrastructure would be hypocritical of the Republic of Ireland as it would have severe impacts on indigenous and marginalised communities in Texas. 3. Renewables and Energy Security The Cork LNG infrastructure would also have a considerable negative impact on the developing Irish renewable energy industry [vii]. The government has stated that LNG projects are necessary for the purpose of energy security [viii]. However, recent research shows that the rapid development of indigenous renewables combined with energy storage technology is the best way to achieve this [ix].   [i] Anderson, K. and Broderick, J. (2017) Natural gas and climate change, Manchester: University of Manchester Available: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/natural-gas-and-climate-change(c82adf1f-17fd-4842-abeb-f16c4ab83605).html [ii] Perez, A. (2018) Global Gas Lock-in: Bridge to Nowhere. Brussels:Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung [iii] US Energy Information Administration (2019) How much shale gas is produced in the United States? Available: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=907&t=8 Accessed 06.11.2019 ͥ[iv] Howarth, R (2019) Opening Statement to the Joint Committee on Climate Action. Dublin: Oireachtas. Available: https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/committee/dail/32/joint_committee_on_climate_action/submissions/2019/2019-10-10_opening-statement-robert-w-howarth-ph-d-cornell-university_en.pdf Accessed 06.11.2019 ͮ[v] Smith, C. J., Forster, P. M., Allen, M., Fuglestvedt, J., Millar, R. J., Rogelj, J., & Zickfeld, K. (2019). Current fossil fuel infrastructure does not yet commit us to 1.5 C warming. Nature communications, 10(1), 101. [vi] Concerned Health Professionals of New York (2019) Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking (Unconventional Gas and Oil Extraction) Available: https://concernedhealthny.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Fracking-Science-Compendium_6.pdf Accessed 06.11.2019 [vii] Shakeb Afsah & Kendyl Salcito (2014). Shale Gas: Killing Coal without Cutting CO2 Available: https://co2scorecard.org/home/researchitem/28 Accessed 06.11.2019 Accessed 06.11.2019 [viii] The Green News “State confirms support of Shannon LNG project” Available: https://greennews.ie/state-support-shannon-lng-pci/ Accessed 06.11.2019 [ix] McMullin, B., Price, P., Carton, J., & Anderson, K. (2018). Is Natural Gas “Essential for Ireland’s Future Energy Security”? Dublin:Stop Climate Chaos

Every day, Irish emigrants who have lived abroad are returning to Ireland in crisis situations such as homelessness, fleeing domestic violence, threats and intimidation, severe health and care needs, deportation, release from detention or prison, loss of income and isolation. On their return, they often struggle to get access to supports such as emergency accommodation, emergency social welfare, medical and psychological treatment, often because they are incorrectly treated differently to residents. Access to these supports is urgently needed, but bureaucracy and administration create barriers and delays to the supports and services. Crosscare Migrant Project supports returning emigrants everyday to access emergency accommodation, social welfare and medical treatment. Some people assisted by the service include older clients with severe healthcare needs and lone parents returning with young children who are asked to use night-by-night only emergency accommodation for weeks, sometimes months, on end. Crosscare Migrant Project has recently published new research identifying all the issues that emigrants in crisis experience before their return and after they have returned to Ireland. The report makes recommendations to the government to introduce appropriate and immediate access to supports such as emergency accommodation, social welfare and medical treatment. You can read the report here www.migrantproject.ie/policy_research/coming-home-in-crisis/ Please sign our petition to ask the Irish Government to support Irish emigrants #ComingHomeInCrisis.

The UNCRPD (United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities), is a human rights instrument with a social development dimension. It reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. You, me and our loved ones are very likely to acquire a disability at some point in our lives. To make decisions for yourself is WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN. No government or organisation should be able to remove these rights because we have not signed the UNCRPD, but this is occurring in Ireland today. This is hidden and happening each and EVERY DAY that we deny ourselves the rights under the UNCRPD. Please help remove the medieval Ward of Court System in this country now by making the government COMMENCE the long overdue UNCRPD. HELP COMMENCE THE UNCRPD

Ireland needs homes for the many thousands of homeless families and children ASAP, However we need an action plan implemented immediately. This government and its policy makers need State land to build homes. As a State, we need to be turning to the Europe bank for a lone to build state homes for our people. If we give away our State land to private developers, we are literally telling the many thousands of homeless families and children in Ireland that we do not care. We must call on all TD, and Councillors to seek change to the homeless crises and the best place to start is with the O’Devaney Gardens lands and seek a significantly higher amount of social housing for this bad deal with Bartra Capital Development, or take the deal of the table.

Shellybanks - Educate together school has 9 pupils arriving in December. We currently fall 4 students short of numbers. It is a brand new building in Sandymount. It represents all religions. As a developing school it is expected to have more pupils - There is currently a directive from the Department of Education requiring developing schools to have a total of 5 additional pupils more than a fully developed school. This makes it harder for the 4%, yes only 4%, of multi denominational schools to get started. Shellybanks are only asking for an extension to December - given the current Brexit climate the term extension should be very clear. Allow our students teachers and school to thrive. Health and safety will not allow the classes be combined - so its not safe for the students! In December there will be the required (additional) number of students in the school. Please support this petition to get change Fast. Thank you +++++++ Additional details: Teacher Allocation There is currently a directive from the Department of Education requiring developing schools to have a total of 5 additional pupils more than a fully developed school. i.e. In our situation, as a developing school, we are required to have 281 students to retain 11 class teaching posts, while a developed school is required to have 276 to retain 11 class teaching posts. As of the deadline mandated by the Dept of Ed, our total enrolment had unexpectedly dropped to 277, which meant we were just 4 students short of retaining 11 class teaching posts. What this now means for Shellybanks is that the Department expects us to divide some of our year groups into multi-grade classes in order to distribute our children across 10 classrooms. While this is far from ideal, in normal circumstances it could be accommodated. However, in our current premises, our fire certificate does not allow us to accommodate these mandated class sizes from the Dept. In other words, we find ourselves in an impossible position, because the Dept. says the rules are we need 281 students, but the fire cert means we can’t combine classes. We have known and prepared for the loss of a teacher in 1st class since August and have been communicating this situation to those families and staff affected. We are now challenging the decision made to lose the second post. So the Dept. is asking us to obey one rule, while they choose to ignore another, namely Health & Safety. We simply refuse to put our students and staff at risk in this way! The Appeal Our Board of Management appealed to the department based on these health and safety concerns. In past appeals, we have been successful in retaining our teaching posts. However, in this instance, the Dept. is simply taking the post from the school, with no recognition of the Health and Safety, and, critically, with zero direction as to how we can safely accommodate teaching and learning. We have also informed the Dept.that we expect an additional 9 pupils to enrol before Dec 2019 and have requested an extension based on this information, but to no avail. At this stage we have exhausted all avenues & resources over an extended period to try to overturn this decision, but the Department will not grant an extension, nor accept our appeal until the numbers are met. See below for additional timeline of events This is incredibly frustrating and disappointing, and we want to assure you that the safety of the children as well as minimising disruption in teaching and learning are our number one priorities. What We Ask Of You We need you, our community and parent body, to support us by reaching out to our TDs and local representatives to explain the situation, so they can raise this through the relevant government channels. Please feel free to show them this communication from the Board of Mgmt.

Each day there are lifts out of order along the DART and commuter line. This affects wheelchair users, parents with buggies and elderly people. In 2016, disability activist Sean O'Kelly was going for driving lessons in Clontarf, he got the DART there weekly. Back then, according Irish Rail, the notice period to give them was 24 hours. This is to allow for Irish Rail personnel to be there to bridge the gap between the train and the platform. The notice period now is 4 hours. On one particular occasion he arrived in Clontarf DART station and there was nobody there to meet him - the driver of the train got him off. The DART had gone off and he approached the lift to discover that it was out of order and was not given prior notice of this. He rang Pearse DART station who then let Killester know that he needed to get on the DART. He was stranded on the platform for half an hour. Access for all was set up to highlight the fact that lifts are out daily and to appeal to Minister Ross to put in some intervention to prevent this from happening. To date, there is no willingness to put serious action in place and he is passing the 'book' onto Irish Rail. We need as much public support as possible. Please sign this if you believe this situation is wrong. Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much

*We recognise that many family carers will simply be unable to attend this protest. For those who can, we would urge you to join us. For those who cannot, please ensure your voice is heard by adding your name to this petition and asking your families and friends to do likewise in support of Ireland's family carers who are the backbone of our healthcare system. Budget 2020 is a damning indictment of Government’s attitude towards Ireland’s 355,000 family carers who save the state €10bn every year. Family Carers Ireland has been asked by family carers to take action to send a clear message to Government that their repeated failure to address the homecare crisis and improve supports and services amounts to exploitation. As a result, we are holding a demonstration outside Leinster House on Wednesday, October 16th from 11am - 12pm. A recent survey of family carers shows that: • Almost 2 in 3 are providing more than 100 hours of care per week • 1 in 4 providing 50+ hours of care per week do not get Carer’s Allowance or Carer’s Benefit • 1 in 3 have a diagnosis of depression • 4 in 10 have a diagnosis of anxiety • Over two thirds suffer with physical ill health and 2 in 3 feel that their health had suffered as a result of caring • Access to routine supports have reduced since 2009, despite more carers providing round the clock care in 2019 • 71% of carers’ loved ones have no access to respite • 72% worry about not having enough money in the future. The five urgent priorities outlined by Family Carers Ireland in our pre-budget submission were: 1. Reform the means test for Carer’s Allowance 2. Increase the hours a carer can work/study from 15 hours to 18.5 hours weekly. 3. End the postcode lottery in homecare and carer supports. 4. Replace the Mobility Allowance and Motorised Transport Grant withdrawn in 2013. 5. Extend the GP Visit Card to include carers in receipt of the Carer’s Support Grant. While Family Carers Ireland welcomes the increase in the hours a carer can work or study, the failure to increase the income disregard means that carers hoping to work additional hours may be negatively impacted by having their Carer's Allowance reduced. The means test requires urgent reform, with just one in five carers currently receiving Carer's Allowance. We also believe the announcement of one million additional homecare hours will not not be enough to clear the current waiting list or keep up with demand.

Every day we talk to women who have been struggling to get the right advice and support for their menopause symptoms. There are over 400,000 women in Ireland in the natural menopause age range of 45-55 – this does not included women who experience early menopause so the actual figure will be higher – this accounts for 12% of the population and this figure is most definitely higher for women who are in actual perimenopause. This is a sizable % of our population that need guidance, help and knowledge. Catherine started Wellness Warrior as a result of the lack of information and support she found as she experienced Perimenopause. Catherine has been joined by Mary Lynn in her goal to extend knowledge to as many women as possible. Over the years we have become increasingly aware of just how many women are not receiving the right support and advice at menopause, from their doctors, their employers and sometimes even their own families and friends. This is all due to a chronic lack of menopause education and awareness. We do not want the women of Ireland to struggle anymore and we want to pave the way for the next generation. Did you know in the last 20 years our lifespan in Ireland has risen by 27.7% - menopause is happening at the middle stage of our lives not towards the end as was more common in the last century. Catherine met Diane Danzebrink in 2019 and their shared passion to get the word of menopause out to everyone has led to us joining forces with Diane to extend her campaign outside of the UK. This is a marathon not a sprint - so to that effect our first set of goals as follows: Menopause in Irish Health Care : Mandatory Menopause Education for all GP’s and healthcare workers. Far too many women are suffering as GP’s receive very little, if any, menopause education during their training leaving them ill equipped to recognise and manage a phase of life that will directly affect at least 50% of the population. The UK published the most recent suicide figures and the age group for women with the highest suicide rate in the U.K is 50-54 - The average age of menopause is 51. (As we have no official menopause stats in Ireland we must defer to UK statistics). Help is urgently needed not just for the physical aspects of menopause but also the mental aspects. A national campaign to educate Irish Society in relation to menopause. Menopause in the Workplace: Raise awareness within the workplace and for all employers to have menopause guidelines in place to be able to support women experiencing symptoms. Too many women feel unsupported at work and currently 1 in 10 leave the workplace due to menopause symptoms. Supporting women to remain at work by implementing a few simple adjustments is common sense. Government and business need to recognize that menopause guidance in every workplace is a win win situation. Secondary School Education: Introduce menopause education in to the SPHE curriculum for all teenage boys and girls. Every woman and man deserves to understand this phase of life. Far too many individuals and relationships suffer as a result of a lack of understanding of menopause. The UK achieved this in July 2019, Ireland should follow suit. Please join us in calling on the Minister for Health (Stephen Donnelly), the Minister for Education (Norma Foley), Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection (Heather Humphreys) and Ministers responsible for health, work and education to #MakeMenopauseMatterIreland