35 blind and visually-impaired ladies have lived here some for over six decades. The proposal is to close the centre and transfer these people to other locations. They have been friends for years; they know the layout of their environment; now they are to be separated and sent to different places. It is difficult enough when you are blind to get to know a new place but when you are an elderly prson it is much more difficult.

It is so important because i experienced this back in 1998 when i first came to Ireland. I was even pushed out of a pub in Temple Bar for no reason. I reported to the police but nothing was done. I was shocked when my brother that came into the country recently experienced the same discrimination at the point of entry into clubs and pubs.

On foot of huge sacrifices made these last 3 months by persons of all ages and circumstances, it would be criminally irresponsible to allow the thirst for tourism income and personal holiday travel to issue in a second wave.

To preserve the gains and prevent a second wave.

The system has raised major human rights concerns and the toll that it takes on its residents has been well documented by NGOs, legal practitioners, experts and international bodies with the Ombudsman and the special rapporteur on child protection both calling on Ireland to abolish Direct Provision. Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party are currently negotiating a program for government.(PFG) The abolition of the dehumanising Direct provision system has become a key sticking point in the negotiations with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail not wishing to make a firm commitment to its abolition in the PFG. In order to ratify the PFG, each party will require a vote by its members and so every member of those parties has a voice on the issue. In addition to signing this petition; Please contact your local Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Green Party TD and Councillors and ask them to commit to only supporting a PFG which contains a firm and time limited commitment to the end of Direct Provision. Sample e-mail text: “Dear [Deputy/Councillor], I am writing to you as my elected representative. Your party is currently negotiating a program for government and, if agreed, you will soon be asked to vote to ratify this. I am asking that you contact your negotiating team in your party and let them know that you can only support a program for government that contains a firm and time limited commitment to the end of the dehumanising Direct Provision. Yours sincerely, You can find details of your elected representatives here https://www.whoismytd.com/ You can find more information on Direct Provision here: https://www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie/listing/category/direct-provision https://doras.org/direct-provision/ https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/irelands-strange-cruel-system-for-asylum-seekers

The Pandemic Universal Payment of €350 per week for all those who lost their income as a result of the Covid19 crisis was a welcome move by the caretaker government and an admission that the current social welfare rates and their previously proposed €203 payment were wholly inadequate. Currently the payment is set to run until 19 June. The payment needs to stay in place until the end of the current health emergency and until the full recovery of employment lost as a result of the pandemic. Any attempt to "taper off" the payment, as recently suggested by Minister Paschal Donohoe, may result in people being pushed back into a workplace before it is safe and financially punish them for a loss of income that was completely out of their control. The current payment does not cover all those who lost income as a result of the crisis. Many of those who work in the gig economy or in precarious employment were deemed ineligible because they were not working on or after 6 March. Both Over 66s and Under 18s who were working prior to the crisis were also deemed ineligible. The payment should be expanded to include these workers. The rate of €350 is an unofficial admission by the caretaker government that the current social welfare rates are wholly inadequate and rates for all social welfare payments including those on state pensions, disability and job seeker payments should now be increased to €350 per week. These measures should be taken as a first step towards creating a Universal Basic Minimum Payment to eradicate poverty in Irish society.

It raises quality of life for everyone; with more adequate living standards for the many people that are now barely surviving on a very unjust minimum wage that puts 'gross' profit before human individuals, families and communities whose welfare is the very cornerstone of our society in the first place.

The Covid-19 epidemic has affected 100 countries worldwide, and has already killed several thousand people, and the WHO have stated the threat of a pandemic is very real. It is an unprecedented public health and economic event in the era of global travel and data sharing. Ireland is in a position of having the benefit of other countries' hindsight. We are in the early stages of an outbreak at under 100 cases (which is widely recognised as the tipping point between containment and mitigation). How we act now determines whether this outbreak spreads exponentially immediately and overwhelms our already problematic health service, or whether we manage to slow the rate of infection and spread out the impact on our health service over time, avoiding bottlenecks in patient care and resources that will prove more fatal than the illness itself, and avoiding widespread panic that can be more contagious than the virus. The WHO posits a possible doubling rate of 4 days, making it two weeks until the outbreak is too widespread to contain. It is stating the obvious to say that we cannot stop this infection from spreading. However we can slow it down and buy important time to make preparations, and eventually to develop a vaccination or sufficient herd immunity to protect the vulnerable (or in a more optimistic scenario to get to the end of the Flu season when it might abate). Comparing the outbreaks in different countries and rates of spread, together with their testing and containment measures, it is clear that countries like China, Singapore and South Korea that have managed to reduce infection rates through strong action on movement and aggressive testing protocol. It is widely recognised that in countries where containment failed, testing protocol was inadequate. It is now an acknowledged feature of Covid-19 that there are a large number of symptomless/mild symptom cases (estimated by the WHO to be up to 80%). This allows for subterranean community spreading under the radar in young healthy populations, which only becomes apparent when a spike in severe symptoms and pneumonia cases among the vulnerable appear. In Singapore broad testing criteria using a combination of PCR and antibody testing have enabled much more effective tracking of routes of infection and breaking of infection patterns. The HSE’s current testing criteria are when a person has symptoms of a fever, cough, shortness of breath/breathing difficulties AND the person has been to “an affected area” OR has been in contact with a confirmed case. https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/coronavirus/coronavirus.html This is dangerously narrow now that we have at least six cases of community transmission in Ireland not linked to travel or confirmed cases Reasonable restrictions on large gatherings such as those implemented in France (over 1000 people), together with broadening of testing protocol to a much greater degree than being operated currently would go a long way to get a better picture of low symptom or asymptomatic cases. Testing should be made widely available, even to people with only mild symptoms. Also antibody testing should be carried out to reverse engineer routes of infection. Testing protocol should be expanded to include anyone with a fever OR with respiratory symptoms without a requirement for known contacts or travel to affected areas. This is more in line with the strategy recommended by the WHO in their WHO-China Joint Mission on Covid-19 on pg.19 where they emphasise the urgent need for non-pharmaceutical measures in the early stages of an outbreak of the virus: “Fundamental to these measures is extremely proactive surveillance to immediately detect cases, very rapid diagnosis and immediate case isolation, rigorous tracking and quarantine of close contacts, and an exceptionally high degree of population understanding and acceptance of these measures.” https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf We call on the Minister for Health Simon Harris to act now to minimise the immediate lethality of this outbreak and thereby mitigating also its economic impact in the long term in Ireland.

No basis to unfairly discriminate one sector of society just because they are not married? Getting married is a choice not everyone is lucky enough or in a position to be in a couple. Why are our government penalising a part of society and reward another for getting married. This is legal discrimination and created inequality.

It is the most important thing in life it would reduce all of the issues across the bored if we are are going to fight for mental health we should start with the younger generations we need to give them tools to help others and help themselves it is fundamental to have something in our shcools at a young age

Michael has been resident in Ireland for five years. In those years he has consistently striven towards completing his education, entirely on the merit of his own hard work. Never once has he claimed assistance from the state, and has worked for the entirety of his time in Ireland. The grounds for his deportation were the result of failing to produce documents confirming his attendance at Carlow College; this was an impossibility for the simple reason that his acceptance had yet to be confirmed. Michael intends to use his degree in Social Political and Community studies to become a community worker, allowing him to better serve in whatever community he comes to reside. Upon achieving his degree, he intends to return to his native Malawi, having completed his education without any financial assistance from the Irish state. The situation in which he finds himself could befall anybody in similar circumstances, and the ends to which intends to turn his degree are supremely noble. By allowing him to complete his degree we are helping Michael to help others. The students stand with Michael. Carlow College stands with Michael. We need you to stand with Michael too. #CarlowWithMichael

We need to stop the industrialisation of Irelands rural landscape, noise pollution, damaging our historic townland's, natural heritage, environment, rural communities health and causing property devaluation.