Public bodies depend on the availability of competent interpreters to deliver essential services effectively. People who cannot adequately understand or communicate in English depend on competent interpreters to access essential services and exercise their rights, including the right to a fair trial. The availability of experienced and suitably qualified interpreters is therefore integral to the effective delivery of justice, not merely an administrative convenience.  In practice, some intermediary interpreting agencies offer contractual terms under which they pay only for time spent actually interpreting, while significant costs and professional time associated with fulfilling the assignment are transferred to the interpreter. These may include several hours of return travel, vehicle and fuel costs, parking and tolls, as well as the loss of other work when a substantial period has been reserved for an assignment that is subsequently cancelled at short notice.    By way of illustration, an interpreter may be offered an 8-hour assignment with a minimum guaranteed duration of one hour and a minimum total payment of €22. The same terms may provide for a cancellation payment of only €11 if the assignment is cancelled within one hour of the scheduled start. In effect, the interpreter may have to reserve an entire working day and, if the assignment is cancelled within one hour of the scheduled start, receive only €11. Where the assignment finishes early or is cancelled at short notice, replacing the lost work is highly unlikely, as interpreting assignments are commonly arranged in advance.    Where contractual conditions discourage experienced professionals from accepting publicly funded assignments, the consequences can affect service quality, continuity and efficiency, and ultimately the value obtained from public expenditure.  If experienced interpreters increasingly decline assignments, public bodies may face a smaller pool of available qualified interpreters and greater difficulty securing appropriate interpreting services when they are needed.  Apparent savings on interpreting costs can create wider costs for public services through delays, adjournments, additional administrative work and urgent replacement arrangements. Poor-quality interpreting can prolong proceedings or, in serious cases, undermine them altogether. In 2021, the Court of Appeal quashed convictions in an Irish criminal case after finding that serious interpretation errors had rendered the trial unfair. The lowest immediate cost of an interpreter does not necessarily deliver the best value for public money. Full text of the petition may be found here.

Commercial rates are placing many riding schools and equestrian centres under severe financial pressure. Some are considering ending riding lessons or closing completely. Riding centres require large arenas, stables, storage areas and car parks for safety and animal welfare. Large premises do not mean large profits. Car parks and other essential areas are being included in rateable valuations, increasing bills despite producing little or no direct income. Local riding centres are the grassroots foundation of Ireland’s equestrian industry. Without them, riding becomes accessible mainly to families who can afford their own horses. These centres provide healthy outdoor activity for children, particularly girls, while also supporting children with additional needs and disadvantaged young people. Equestrian properties reportedly contribute only about €1.7 million annually, representing less than 0.1% of national commercial-rates income. Removing or substantially reducing these charges would have minimal national impact but could protect an entire network of grassroots facilities. The campaign is calling for fair national legislation that recognises the unique nature and limited earning capacity of equestrian centres. Other TDs, councillors, MEPs and equestrian organisations should now support Ryan O’Meara and help bring the issue before Government. “If we allow local riding centres to disappear, we will lose the grassroots foundation of Irish equestrian sport. Please share this and ask your local representatives to support fair rates relief for equestrian centres.”

The Call:  UAR therefore calls on the Minister for Justice and the Oireachtas to clarify the following points: • The Bill justifies the increase from 5 to 8 years as a means to "establish a proportionate timeline that encourages steady economic and social integration before naturalisation." We request an in-depth explanation of why 8 years is considered necessary and why 5 years of lawful residence, tax contributions, community participation and family life are no longer sufficient evidence of integration. • The Bill allows the Minister for Justice to revoke citizenship on the basis of ‘national security.’ We have heard from Irish residents who are worried that such removals may be conducted against political dissenters, like the reprisals we have seen against pro-Palestine activists in the USA.  We request an explanation of what falls under ‘national security,’ and how the Minister of Justice intends to apply this provision of the Bill.  • Subsections 15(3)(a) and 15(3)(b) require that the naturalisation applicant, at the time of the application, to be in receipt of a ‘minimum’ level of income and to have not received social welfare for a period of two years. Given that migrants, and particularly vulnerable asylum seekers, often face labour restrictions that limit their income, and given that Ireland is experiencing a cost of living crisis in which 70% of young Irish adults are considering economic emigration, we find this provision of the Bill disturbing. We request clarification of the ‘minimum’ income required of naturalisation applicants and an explanation of how the government plans to support migrants in achieving economic stability in Ireland.  We request an answer to these questions in writing.  To ensure that a full explanation is delivered, including to any additional questions arising from the government’s written reply, we request that the Public Petition Committee host a public meeting on the matter with representatives of the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, and members of the Public Petition and Ombudsman Committee. We request that this meeting be broadcast on the Oireachtas channel, and that the minutes of that meeting be brought into the Dáil for possible further debate. Sincerely, United Against Racism and supporters.

Children spend a huge proportion of their lives in classrooms. They should not have to breathe poorly ventilated, unfiltered, rebreathed air for six hours a day when practical solutions exist. COVID has not disappeared. Reinfections continue, and a proportion of children and adults (16% according HSE FADA report, 15-53% according to HIQA's review of international evidence, 16% according to Mass General Brigham study, 2026, 27% of healthcare workers according to NHS REACH-OUT study, 2026) develop Long COVID — sometimes with disabling symptoms. Due to the lack of information on long Covid in Ireland, much of this harm is going undiagnosed or is not attributed to the real cause, COVID-19 infection. The WHO, the CDC, the OECD and other international organizations continue to warn about Long COVID, including its impact on children, yet public awareness in Ireland remains remarkably low. Clean indoor air is one of the few interventions that can protect everyone without requiring individual behaviour. Good ventilation and appropriately sized HEPA filtration reduce exposure to airborne infectious particles while also helping to reduce pollutants, allergens and particulate matter. Other places are already acting. Schools in London, parts of the United States, Canada, Australia and elsewhere have introduced filtration, air-quality monitoring or wider clean-air programmes. Ireland announced €62 million for school ventilation improvements and HEPA filtration in December 2021, yet HEPA filtration is still not standard in Irish classrooms. This is also about the right to honest public-health information. Parents should be given clear, current information about airborne transmission, Long COVID, women and girls being at greater risk of Long COVID, reinfection and the potential longer-term consequences of infection so that they can make informed decisions for their families. The information vacuum on the reality of Long COVID and the huge burden it puts on the healthcare system is being filled by racist, antivax conspiracy theorists. Clean Indoor Air will save lives and improve the health and wellbeing of children today and for generations to come. The infrastructure we put in place now will protect pupils and teachers from COVID, influenza and many other airborne infections, while improving the everyday quality of the air they breathe.  Ireland entered the pandemic with the 4th highest rate of asthma in the world with 1 in 5 children suffering and as an outlier in the EU with rising deaths from asthma. It is an abomination that the government decided against making HEPA filters standard in classrooms when faced with COVID-19, and we feel it is an insult to our intelligence and an exercise in gaslighting when politicians and media discuss issues such as "alarming rates of absenteeism" and "record breaking hospital overcrowding", while completely ignoring the reality of long COVID. We know how to make indoor air cleaner. We know how to reduce airborne transmission. Parents deserve accurate information about the risks. What is missing is the political will to act. Please join us in asking the Government to make clean air and honest public-health information a basic standard for every child in Ireland.

Local communities rely on An Post to deliver accessible services. Currently, there are three Delivery Service Units (DSUs) in Dublin South Central, located at Dolphin's Barn, Crumlin, and Ballyfermot. These are the depots where people who live in Dublin 8, 10 and 12 go if they need to collect a package. Under new plans from An Post, these DSUs will be moved out of their local areas, and relocated to a single 'superhub' in Lucan. This will be disastrous for both residents of Dublin 8, 10 and 12, and the postal workers providing a vital service for these communities. For local residents of Dublin 8, 10, and 12, they will now have to travel to Lucan just to pick up their missed packages. For locals of Rialto, Crumlin, and other areas, this could mean hours on public transport, or stuck in traffic. For anyone with caring responsibilities or disabilities, making this commute will just not be possible. For An Post's own workers, these changes will result in degradation of their working conditions. Many of these workers have built their lives around where they work, but are now being told that that they will need to make long commutes on a daily basis, just to carry out their role of providing a vital service for their local communities. These longer commutes will also result in routes not being finished. If a postal worker gets stuck in traffic between Lucan and Ballyfermot, for example, they will not be able to complete their route, and will have to return undelivered packages to the superhub in Lucan. Moreover, the environmental impact of this change cannot be overlooked. Increased travel distances mean more traffic congestion and higher carbon emissions, contributing to pollution and climate change—concerns that should be at the forefront of our decision-making processes. We are calling on An Post to drop these plans immediately. These changes will be disastrous for the residents of Dublin 8, 10 and 12, and the postal workers that service those communities. Instead of relocating these services out of local communities, we call an An Post to invest in improving the existing facilities in Dolphin's Barn, Crumlin, and Ballyfermot. Postal services are a vital community infrastructure, and they need to stay in communities.

Other people should join me in this campaigne because there has been many issues lately with the tullamore skate scene as the park is an unsafe place and the skatepark no longer feels like a fun place to learn to skate there is many skaters in tullamore and only one skatepark is no longer enough

The beloved Silk Road Café at the Chester Beatty, Dublin Castle, is being forced to close for six months to facilitate the EU Presidency, with no compensation. Instead of celebrating the café's 25th anniversary in July, owner Abraham Phelan will have to let go his loyal staff of many years. The least our public representatives and bodies can do is to compensate the workers, or offer an alternative premises so the café can continue to provide delicious food to Dubliners and visitors.  They should also ensure that any other workers who are suffering job losses for the same reason are compensated.

The 72 hour mandatory wait for abortion in the South of Ireland is patronising and dangerous.  It does not recognise the amount of thought someone gives to this decision before picking up the phone to make an appointment. In reality, it introduces additional barriers. Requesting time off work, having to travel if there is not a provider in your area, requiring assistance if you are disabled or chronically ill, under-resourced medical facilities – all of this makes accessing an abortion harder, and the 3 day wait ultimately forces women to go much later. If you are in an abusive relationship, homeless or generally vulnerable, it is even more dangerous.  There have been cases when women discover they are pregnant and all of these factors coupled with the 3 day wait means they pass the 12 week deadline and are forced to travel to Britain for an abortion, or to go through with a pregnancy that they don’t want. The last-minute introduction of the 3-day wait was a political decision by the Irish government to assuage the anti-choice lobby. There is no medical requirement for this, as stated by the WHO, and it brings added pressure on GP services.  Today, the government is even more right-wing and voted down Bríd Smith’s bill from the previous Dáil term to remove a host of barriers to abortion care, including the 3 day wait – this was despite it being debated at second stage previously. Far-right and reactionary forces have their eyes on abortion and bodily autonomy and we believe that building a campaign to remove this clause and expand abortion rights in Ireland can push them back. Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger is bringing forward a bill (Amendment to the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2026)) to remove the 3-day wait.  Please sign this petition to indicate your support for removing the 3-day wait and get involved in the campaign. Ruth Coppinger's bill will be opposed by Aontú, Independent Ireland, right wing Independents and some government TDs -- to what extent we don't yet know, but for this reason it is even more vital to show that the vast majority of Irish society does not want this sexist and harmful clause in our law.

Because every child deserves Magic at Christmas, even children who are employed in slave labour in the cocoa industry who supply Cadbury's. " Mondelēz International — the food giant behind Oreos, Cadbury, and Toblerone — has spent years cultivating an image as a sustainability leader, earning high environmental scores and pledging to eliminate deforestation and human rights abuses from its supply chains. Investigative reporting, however, reveals a starkly different reality: of a company that appears more focused on protecting its reputation than preventing harm to vulnerable people and the planet. For decades, Mondelēz has faced scrutiny over its cocoa sourcing in West Africa, where child and forced labor are widely documented and an estimated 1.56 million children work on cocoa farms. In 2022, a Channel 4 investigation reported that children as young as ten were using machetes to harvest cocoa pods on a Ghanaian farm allegedly linked to Mondelēz. Mondelēz has emphasized that such practices violate its policies and has pointed to its child labor monitoring system. But that system does not cover all the farms in its supply chain, and the company lacks full traceability for its cocoa — meaning it cannot determine whether child labor is involved in some of the cocoa it uses." Source: https://www.ran.org/the-understory/mondelez-has-built-a-reputation-on-sustainability-we-call-it-deception/

WHY THIS IS AN ATTACK ON ALL OF US 🔍 Targeting Whistleblowers Lorna and Brenda raised serious, documented concerns about the misuse of union funds and a lack of financial transparency. Their suspensions constitute penalisation under the Protected Disclosures Act — plain and simple. 📱 Suspended for a Facebook Like Helen, and Mark were suspended for engaging with social media posts that asked difficult questions. If members can be disciplined for liking a post, no member is safe from arbitrary action. 🗳️ Election Interference These suspensions were timed specifically to prevent the five from standing in the upcoming BDC and NEC elections — a direct violation of Rule 25.2, which guarantees every member a fair right to contest elections. 📜 Procedural Lawlessness The NEC has ignored its own Rule Book. Rule 13.1 does not permit the NEC to issue indefinite standalone suspensions to NEC members without formal referral to the BDC. The process also ignored mandatory notice periods required under Rule 26.3 — what can only be described as a procedural ambush. ⚖️ Conflict of Interest The complaints were brought by industrial staff who threatened industrial action if action wasn’t taken against the members. Some complainants were allowed to present to the NEC to influence the process, whereas the suspended members weren’t. Allowing conflicted individuals to drive this process undermines any pretence of fairness. OUR DEMANDS 1. IMMEDIATE REINSTATEMENT — Lift the suspensions of all five members without delay. 2. RESPECT THE RULE BOOK — End all ultra vires actions that bypass the authority of the BDC. 3. STOP THE PENALISATION — No member should face discipline for making protected disclosures about financial oversight and governance. 4. PROTECT DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS — Guarantee that all five candidates have a fair and unhindered right to contest the upcoming elections under Rule 25.2. By signing this petition, you are sending a clear message to Mandate leadership: this union belongs to its members. Not to unaccountable structures. Not to those who wish to avoid scrutiny. And not to those who would silence the very people trying to protect our money and our rights. Stand with Lorna. Stand with Brenda, Sarah, Helen, and Mark. Stand with the Suspended Five. Stand for a Transparent Mandate.

Because they provide a vital service voluntarily to New Ross and it's surroundings

St. Patrick's Day is Ireland's most important national and cultural celebration, recognised globally.  Establishing a fixed annual long weekend would: • Enable greater participation in parades, cultural events and community celebrations • Support tourism, hospitality, and local economies across the country • Provide a consistent national holiday structure This change would preserve the cultural, historical and religious significance of the 17th of March while improving how the public holiday is observed for the benefit of society and the economy.