Many parents, but mostly mothers, are taking the difficult decision to put their career on hold and leaving jobs they love because the cost of childcare makes working unaffordable. In the majority of cases this leaves them dependent on their spouse/partner for an income. Many are unable to fully afford the basics like rent, food and clothing until their youngest goes to school, some longer than that. Let's stop punishing parents. Let's make Ireland a family friendly society and truly cherish our children. In the relatively short time that is childhood let's support parents in their choice to have children and give them access to fully state funded childcare.

With the impending uncertainty of Brexit and following a commitment from the Irish Government to stand up for the rights of citizens in the North, opening a passport office would improve infrastructure, service delivery, investment and confidence. 2017 saw over 82,000 passport applications come from the North alone. The call to open an office is supported by a broad range of community organisations, political parties and media outlets, and would go some way in meeting the growing demand for passport applications and renewals from the Six Counties.

Grassroots men and women who have given their lives to the GAA are being cut off from their own games, despite the organisation being built on the strength of their work. It is disingenuous to suggest that the pay per view model is financially essential given the rude health of the GAA in 2018. Based on the experiences of other sports with providers like Sky, we believe that in terms of active participation and meaningful engagement, it is detrimental to the GAA community to develop this relationship any further. (see http://historyhub.ie/the-impact-of-pay-tv-on-sport) The elite model which Sky Sports champions is detrimental to the social fabric of areas in which GAA clubs carry a sincere social responsibility. The GAA’s most significant opportunity lies in restoring value to local community. We can shift the balance back towards the club by encouraging the club game to develop alongside the intercounty game, as opposed to well behind it, as is the current reality. Based on recent motions from Clare, Leitrim and Roscommon, it is clear that people at the coalface of GAA life do not support the organisation's decision to use a pay per view model. We respectfully request that you sign the petition in order to send a clear and unified message to the incoming Director General and President. Le meas Paul Rouse Joe Brolly Michael Duignan Diarmuid Lyng

An Taoiseach is our representative abroad. When he accepts prejudice, racism and bigotry, it shames the people of our country. We feel that such an alliance is not good for our country's reputation and undermines our relationship with other countries. Trump is a despicable human being. A point must be reached where falling at the foot of a powerful man, at the expense of our values and morals and international reputation is not acceptable! "'Shame'rock for Trump: Not in our Name"

The situation in direct provision is cruel, and people are stuck there for up to 7 years. Sign and share our petition here: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/end-direct-provision-avoca What's wrong with the food it provides at direct provision sites? Lack of nutritional food, chips almost every second day, a menu change every fortnight, little to no access to fresh fruit, no access to self-cater or ethnic foods. This will be one of the biggest shame's on the Irish state since the Magdelene Laundries. Aramark is a US owned company which provides the catering for 3 direct provision centers. It's big, and it doesn't care about small protests against its own name. Aramark bought out Avoca during the summer from an Irish family, and it's quickly becoming one of their most important assets. This will be highly impactful two days before Christmas. It's Avoca's busiest shopping period, and we intend to highlight Avoca and Aramark's ties to direct provision. Sign and share our petition here: https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/end-direct-provision-avoca Let's make some music, and cause a bit of a jam this Christmas. More information here: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/lives-in-limbo

Currently Carlow Women's Aid are a frontline service for women and children experiencing violence and domestic abuse. The staff are a lifeline in Carlow and have helped to obtain 254 court orders and attended 388 court sittings in 2016 alone. SAFE Ireland provided a snapshot of one day in Ireland in 2015 - 505 women and 269 children sought support from a domestic violence service.112 women and 147 children were accommodated in a refuge. 18 women couldn't be accommodated in a refuge (SAFE Ireland, 2015). This huge lack of essential support services results in: Unmet requests for refuge everyday; Accommodation problems and homelessness; Staying in abusive relationships; Increasing likelihood returning to violent and abusive homes; Fear of reporting the abuse due to the lack of emergency accommodation available; This failure of affects women and children living with violence and abuse in their homes - people who are silenced and among some of the most vulnerable in the population.

If the incentives are directed towards the large energy utility companies including the ESB, Board Gas, Coilte, Board Na Mona etc and large private companies funded by venture capitalists they will build large scale solar parks mainly in the South and South East of Ireland. This would be good news for Ireland for efforts to meet our 2020 C02 obligations and a renewable future. But there will be no benefits for the majority of the population of Ireland. We will continue to pay the second highest electricity prices in the EU. A grant and a feed in tariff and possibly a generation tariff for the installation of Solar PV on houses, farm buildings and all types of commercial buildings could reduce the annual electricity bills by up to 50% and contribute towards a large reduction on Ireland's dependency on imported fuel bill of €6 billion per year.

Tell the Councillors that the Sean McDermott Street Magdalene site must be preserved as a national centre for commemoration and education. The institutional and clerical abuses that have caused pain and destruction to so many people and families in Ireland must be acknowledged. We must never forget, and we must never allow them to happen again. This is the new Ireland. We can and must remember. We must honour survivors when they say: "I’d like them to acknowledge what has happened and accept what has happened - instead of saying, ‘oh yes I’m sorry,’ but no meaning behind it - and make sure it never ever, ever happens again." (Link to http://jfmresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/JFMR-report-to-CAT-for-the-session-2017-Main-Report.pdf ) We must respect the survivors who tell us: "I just would like it to be known. I would like it to go into the history books and I would like...do you know, the younger generation of today including my own grandchildren to know that that’s the way it was long ago. It wasn’t the perpetrator that went in, that got into trouble, it was the victim. You know, you’d have had to have been a girl, like, for that to happen." (Link to http://jfmresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/JFMR-report-to-CAT-for-the-session-2017-Main-Report.pdf ) We must hold the Taoiseach to what he told the Pope last weekend, and demand action, not just brave words. As Leo Varadkar said on Saturday: "the failures of both Church and State and wider society created a bitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering. ...It is a history of sorrow and shame. ...Wounds are still open and there is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors." DCC Councillors will shortly vote on the following motion: “Following the repeated recommendations of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) that the Irish State should undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into ill-treatment of girls and women at the Magdalene Laundries, promote greater access to archival information regarding the Magdalene Laundries and fully implement the outstanding recommendations of Mr Justice Quirke, including services for survivors and memorialisation, the elected members of Dublin City Council (DCC) consider it entirely inappropriate that DCC is currently offering the Magdalene Laundry site at Sean McDermott Street for sale to private developers. The elected members of DCC are also concerned that, despite it being the first recommendation of Mr Justice Ryan's Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, a memorial to those abused in residential schools has never been created. We hereby request a halt to the sale of the Magdalene Laundry site at Sean McDermott Street. We welcome the creation of the Lord Mayor's Commission and look forward to receiving its recommendations regarding the appropriate use of the site.”

Combined Assad Regime/Russian attacks on Eastern Ghouta: -> On November 27th 2017, the Syrian Network for Human Rights released a report [1] detailing the horrific increase in military assaults on Eastern Ghouta, a region with approximately 400,000 people enduring years of siege at the hands of the Syrian regime and allied forces [2]. 147 civilians including 37 children had been killed in two weeks of attacks. The report stresses “that the Syrian and Russian regimes have, beyond any doubt, violated Security Council Resolutions 2139 and 2254 which both state that indiscriminate attacks must be halted. Also, The Syrian and Russian regimes have violated Article 8 of Rome Statute through the act of willful killing which constitutes war crimes.” The report adds that: “the bombardment has targeted defenseless civilians. Therefore, Syrian and Russian forces have violated the rules of the international human rights law which guarantee the right to life. Additionally, these violations were perpetrated in a non-international armed conflict which amount to a war crime where all elements were fulfilled.” Russia blocking apprehension of perpetrators of Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapons massacre: -> The U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 2235 (2015) on 7 August 2015, condemning “any use of any toxic chemical, such as chlorine, as a weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic”, and expressing determination to identify and hold accountable those responsible for such acts. This saw the establishment of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) between the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to identify and hold accountable those responsible for such acts.[3] On November 17th 2016 the Security Council renewed the mandate of the JIM. However, subsequent to the infamous Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapon attack in April 2017, a UN investigation panel had been able to establish definitively that regime forces had carried out that chemical weapons attack[4]. As a result of that finding, Russia used its veto at the U.N. Security Council twice - on November 16th and 17th, 2017 - to prevent the renewal of the JIM’s mandate, making it impossible for all intents and purposes the task of holding to account those responsible for the attack. [5] In the interests of Syrian civilians, it is of course necessary to engage with Russia in order to eventually achieve peace for Syria. As Frederic Hof - writing for the Atlantic Council [6] - has pointed out however, this should not be interpreted as cooperation with them. In relation to the assault on Eastern Ghouta, it is fitting to end our petition with this quote from a resident of Eastern Ghouta when interviewed on Newsnight on November 27th, 2017: “There are no deadly weapons that we haven't been targetted with. You who are listening to me. What more are you waiting for? Our extermination?” [7] 1: http://sn4hr.org/wp-content/pdf/english/The_bombing_and_siege_of_the_eastern_Ghouta_cancels_the_next_round_of_Geneva_en.pdf 2: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/siege-eastern-ghouta-blot-world-conscience-171120191755424.html 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPCW-UN_Joint_Investigative_Mechanism 4: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/world/middleeast/syria-chemical-khan-shekhoun.html?action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article 5: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/18/syria-chemical-attacks-haley-russia-shameful-veto-un-inquiry 6: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/cooperate-with-russia 7: See video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEHM8krVMr4&list=PLJxnQXiytA_Qc0B57aViue2G3DPet1Z0L#action=share

As per the Irish Times article on November 29th by Kitty Holland, homelessness among single adults is up 44% in the Midlands in the year since October 2016 and this shelter, having already cut its staffing is now facing closure (1). The assertion by the Department of Housing that "the needs of regions are kept under review on an ongoing basis" and "it will help to meet the costs faced by housing bodies." is clearly not of any value here. This shelter which also serves the needs of people in Laois, Longford and Offaly needs to be kept open and Midlands Simon has to be given concrete assurances that it will receive adequate funding as a matter of urgency. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/sole-westmeath-homeless-shelter-likely-to-close-over-funding-1.3308697

7 people have died on the streets of Dublin in the past 12 weeks. In our towns and cities there are thousands of people facing the winter without a roof over their heads - sleeping in cars, in tents, doorways, under bushes. Emergency accommodation is needed for everyone and must be made a priority this winter.

The planning committee have a duty to represent ratepayers and seek to establish if these are unlawful decisions. These decisions may be unlawful if there has been no study of the combined health impacts on the people living in the area. Downwind, and in the six miles between these two developments, lie the homes of tens of thousands of people, as well as recreational water bodies, holiday sites and the shores of Belfast Lough. The human cost of poor air quality is huge causing the deaths of more people per year, in Northern Ireland, than passive smoking or road accidents combined and costing the NHS over £20 billion per year. (1) At a time when the World Health Organisation are saying that the greater Belfast area air already exceeds safe levels by 20% we deserve a cumulative health impact study before any further work proceeds. (2) Read more on FB @Stop the Newtownabbey Pig Factory & Stop Hightown Waste Incinerator 1. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-air-pollution-levels-among-the-worst-in-uk-35636923.html 2. http://breathelife2030.org/ 3 https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2017/11/13/air-quality-breaches-stops-development-which-threatened-to-exacerbate-them/