The wages paid at present in ireland are not enough to cover the rising living costs .This is simply not enough to live on, with the average weekly minimum wage income €320- €360 per week. (€9.60 per hour). The average wage needs to be set to at least €11 per hour to cover living costs and for a decent standard of living, which is our right. The wages have stayed the same for a decade in Ireland, while everything else has gone up in price considerably. The wages are completely unrealistic and anyone trying to pay rent/ mortgage/ car costs/TV licence/ utility Bills/ refuse/ WiFi/ loans,etc are stretched to the limites and having to get into further debt just to make ends meet. This is not good enough. In Ireland it is well known that the cost of living is really high and it should be met with a fair minimum wage to meet the rising living costs. We deserve better than this, and we demand an immediate review of the minimum wage to a fair and realistic one. In Scandinavian countries, where the standard of living is rated the highest in the world, the minimum wage is €25 per hour, and the working week has been decreased to 32 Hours. This means people have a good standard of living for the work they do.They are less stressed, therefore they don't need to take sick days, and their overall work productivity is higher, as they are less stressed. They can easily cover their living costs and have some kind of lifestyle, which we are entitled too. This is also really good for the economy and communitites as people will spend more, meaning there is more money circulating in communities and the economy- everybody benefits. Please help to support this campaign and share with family and friends. Something really needs to be done, and together we do have a voice.

Temple Bar Food Market was set up 21 years ago by a group of growers and producers with a vision to bring Irish, artisan, local and high quality produce to a city centre location. These traders have committed to the market and seen it go from strength to strength over the years, with the support of customers old and new. With the dissolution of Temple Bar Cultural Trust, TBFM is now being run by Dublin City Council. Therefor Meeting House Square has gone from being private property to a public site, which requires all traders to acquire a casual trading licence to trade. Our current bye-laws were introduced by Dublin City Council on March 4th 2013. These bye-laws are now being reviewed by public consultation. Below are some of the new terms and conditions of trading. These T+Cs apply to all casual trading licences in the city - from bric a brac, to flowers, hawkers and food markets. Temple Bar Food Market is also subject to these, and clearly one size does not fit all! We are asking our customers to sign this petition in solidarity with traders to have our amendments considered and taken on board before these new bye-laws come into effect. They may seem like small insignificant details, but they have a huge impact on the running of small businesses and the food market as a whole. WHAT YOU CAN DO! Act now to help the market — sign the petition. We will include this act of support in our submission. Copy and paste our amendments below and send them as a submission with regards specifically to TBFM to [email protected] All this helps to make it clear we want the integrity of the market maintained under the hands of Dublin City Council! Deadline for submission: before 17.00 on Thursday 29th March, 2018 NEW TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF TRADING 1 "VACANT PITCHES Designated area trading pitch allocation policy Vacant pitches will be offered on a first come first served basis, except in the case of new areas which will be allocated by lottery." A first come first serve basis will not work for TBFM, nor a lottery system. We need a quality control measure whereby applicants need to show their high food standards. We also have a quota for hot food which is full, and so only grocery and produce based stalls should be considered until a hot food stall leaves. There has been an exception made for producers who are selling their own produce alongside a hot food offering - as this hot food offering helps to promote the product. i.e Broughgammon Butchers. Specific areas we are missing and would be welcome are: fishmonger, loose leaf tea, fermented goods 2 "PITCHES Pitch numbers according to DCC: 23" We have 22 pitches currently occupied - we have two pitches free. Therefore, the total number of pitches is 24. 4 "PRESENCE OF LICENCE HOLDER/STAFF A licence holder may nominate a maximum of two agents to assist in the operation of a designated trading stall under the following terms and conditions: (maximum now included) There may only be a maximum of two people operating the stall at any one time and each of them must be trading within one metre of the stall. (maximum now included) The licence holder must be present at all times where practicable. It is acceptable that the licence holder be absent during holiday periods or due to illness but this absence must be advised to the Casual Trading Section as soon as practically possible. Phone: 01-2222165 E-mail: [email protected]. A medical certificate is required for prolonged period of absence." Traders at TBFM would often have more than two staff members, or have rotating staff lists. It would be impractical to restrict a stall to two specific staff members or ‘agents.’ We would ask that this particular term be waived for the market. It is also impractical for the licence holder to be present at all times - with or without the excuse of illness. Many licence holders would be responsible for other markets on the same day, deliveries etc, and therefore leave their stall in the capable hands of staff. 5 "WASTE MANAGEMENT The removal of waste generated at each trading stall is the responsibility of the trader. Under the Waste Management Act 1996 traders have two options to dispose of their waste: Arrange for a private waste disposal company to do it. The trader can arrange to dispose of their waste in an alternative proper manner. Both options must comply with the Waste Management Act 1996 and relevant EU regulations/directives. Traders are reminded that when they are disposing of their waste and either fail to do so or do it in a way which infringes the Waste Management Act 1996 they are liable to be prosecuted by the local authority. Traders are also reminded of their responsibilities under the Protection of the Environment Act, 2003 and the Litter Pollution Act 1997." Currently TBFM waste disposal is organized by the management company employed by DCC. This includes public waste i.e. created by customers purchasing food at the market. This does not include personal waste, which traders already dispose of themselves. The traders would like to know who will be responsible for this public waste. The traders also wish to know if a management company will be kept in place after the introduction of the bye-laws - as much of the smooth running of the market relies on this. 6 "TRADING HOURS Saturdays Only : 7a.m.-9.45.a.m. for set up Trading hours 10 a.m.-4.30 pm. Pack up 4.30 p.m. -6.30 p.m." We would like our trading times changed to: Saturdays Only : 7a.m.-9a.m. for set up Trading hours 9 a.m.-5.00 p.m. Pack up 5.00 p.m.- 6.30 p.m. 7 "UNAUTHORISED ADS/BANNERS Attaching commercial advertisements or unauthorised banners or material to a stall is prohibited. (New)" Some traders at TBFM would use their stall as a notice board for outside events, workshops and other food related activities, both for themselves and to support others in the food industry.

The government is supposed to reach a decision in April 2018 on whether or not to grant a license for the right to mechanically harvest seaweed to a private Canadian company. The sale was complicated by a legality. The ownership of the right to harvest seaweed is currently under question. Traditionally local people, owned the rights to harvest seaweed and harvested it in a sustainable way. Mechanically harvesting seaweed is not environmentally sustainable and will have a serious impact on the ecology of the sea. Harvesting rights to seaweed belong to the people and should not be allowed to be sold off by the State for private profit. Seaweed is now a highly lucrative resource which should be harvested in a sustainable way for the benefit of the people of Ireland living now and for future generations.

Health care staff are so important in all of our lives. They care for us and go beyond the call of duty so often. It is not their fault that the storm is causing such disruption. Telling them that they have to take unpaid leave or eat into their holidays is down right unjust and deeply uncaring.

We want the people's voice to be heard respecting water and sanitation services in Ireland, and a referendum be held. Across the globe ordinary people have undergone tremendous hardship and suffering when water services are privatised. Water is a human right and must never be under the control of 'for profit' companies. Publicly owned, funded and managed water and sanitation services, free at the point of use, is the only way to guarantee access for all.

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.

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

Minister of Education, HEA and President Of UL, now that ye have found that Leona O’Callaghan was wronged, what are ye doing about her losing her job? My name is Dylan Campion, I’m 17 and son of Leona O’Callaghan who blew the whistle on financial wrongdoing in UL and was managed out of her job because of it. She was on Primetime and the news in the past few days. Back when my mam was trying to make decisions about payments that she knew shouldn’t be made out of public money, I remember how stressed she was, how much she worked back and how worried she was about losing her job. I mistakenly never thought it would come to that. She taught me that doing the right thing should always come first no matter what your personal risk is. She challenged her management about payments and chose her morals were more important than giving into pressure from her bosses higher up. I’ve seen my mam lose her job over this decision. I’ve seen her feel hopeless about her career and her future. I’ve seen her worry about money and having to cope on social welfare for years now when before all this she always worked and was good at her job. My mam tried really hard to go up against UL with solicitors but it went on for years. She did sit-ins, protests and lobbied ministers when she saw the same thing that happened to her happen to others. My mam has taught me the importance of truth and standing up for what’s right. A lot of people have said lovely things on Facebook about my mam and I believe that the honest people of Limerick can help put pressure on the Dept of Education and UL to sit with my mam and give her justice. Please sign the petition to show your support that it’s not ok to treat whistleblowers like my mam in the way they have. They should be thanked and promoted for doing the right thing not have their job and future taken from them. Regards, Dylan Campion

Phibsborough Post Office is a major branch office of An Post, employing seven people directly and providing vital social and postal services to the communities of East Cabra and Phibsborough with a population of c. 15,000 people. The closure of the Post Office would result in the loss of a vital public service, particularly for the elderly.

I’ve been working for Dunnes Stores for 8 years now, and I still don’t know what my wages will be from week-to-week. On any payday, a Dunnes workers' wages can be slashed by up to 60% (more than €200). This makes it impossible for my family and I to plan our lives, and we’re not alone. There are almost 10,000 workers in Dunnes Stores who have the same worries I do. Most of us are low paid. Most of us are women. And most of us are on 15 hour contracts. So some weeks we will work 40 hours, but when a local manager takes a dislike to us, they can slash our hours to 15. And there are hundreds of thousands of workers across the country in a similar position. We don’t know from week-to-week whether we will be able to pay our bills. We can’t get loans or mortgages because the banks look at the lowest hours on our contracts and see how insecure our wages are. It’s impossible to have peace of mind. That’s why in April 2015, two and a half years ago, 6,000 of us went on strike to win secure hour contracts. After the strike, management targeted us. They sacked some of us, slashed the hours of others, changed our working patterns and generally made our lives hell. They use the allocation of hours as a control mechanism over us. So we now have to rely on politicians to legislate in order to make sure every worker in Ireland is protected from zero hour and “If and When” contracts. There have been several opportunities to pass legislation in recent years, which would have ended zero hours and ‘If and When’ contracts, but the government has delayed and postponed and are now preparing their own legislation which we believe will not benefit low hour workers. Our Union, Mandate, believes the government are going to leave loopholes open so that employers can still exploit workers like me. But if all TD’s commit to support the Secure Hours – Better Future charter, we can make sure no worker is exploited and workers like us can plan our day-to-day lives, provide for our families and pay our bills. Please sign this petition and call on your local representatives to support the Secure Hours – Better Future charter today.

The year 2017 marked twenty years since Ireland’s first comprehensive plan to address poverty: the National Anti-Poverty Strategy 1997-2006. The year 2018 marked key anniversary for End Poverty activists and for the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights! The 30th anniversary of the death of Joseph Wresinski, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela (who launched the Make Poverty History Campaign) and the 70 years of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The year 2019 is starting with the Centenary of the first meeting of Dáil Éireann which occurred on 21 January 1919 in the Round Room of the Dublin Mansion House. In this first and highly symbolic meeting, the proceedings of the Dáil were conducted for the only time entirely in the Irish language, except for previously drafted declarations including the proclamation of the "Democratic Programme" including the following pledge: "It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children, to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter, but that all shall be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper education and training as Citizens of a Free and Gaelic Ireland." On the day of the Centenary, the Irish Times in partnership with the Children Rights' Alliance launched the #NoChild2020 campaign! No Child 2020 is an initiative by Fintan O'Toole and other Irish Times' journalists aiming to provide a sustained focus on child welfare and children’s issues over the coming year. We believe that Ireland needs a new Integrated Framework for Social Inclusion, to tackle inequality and poverty. We know Ireland faces major challenges: - to end the Housing Crisis - to deliver the SlainteCare’s vision for a better and fairer health system - to tackle Child Poverty and the poverty faced by the children's families - to implement the 17 Global Goals set down in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including action to limit climate change with a strong concern for climate justice - to become a society with communities ready to leave no one behind, the promise of the UN 2030 Agenda If we are serious about tackling these issues, and serious about lifting people out of poverty and eliminating its causes, we must have a consistent, comprehensive plan to address poverty and social exclusion. Such a plan will only succeed if it is owned by civil society at large and also by the people experiencing poverty, not just politicians and the organisations that work to combat inequality and exclusion. Our call to action: let's walk as one to end poverty! In the follow-up of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December 2018), as Ireland marks the Centenary of the Democratic Programme, strengthened by the launch of the "No Child 2020" initiative, inspired by the "End Poverty" legacies of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, inspired also by the pledge of Joseph Wresinski: "To come together is our solemn duty," and following the call by Mary Robinson and the Elders to "Walk Together", we seek a new approach. Let's bring everyone who wants to make a difference together! All stakeholders: public bodies, teachers, trainers and researchers, corporates and services, youth groups and pensioners, and the people who fight against the poverty and stigma that they experience. Let's say: "We – citizens, workers, leaders, managers, carers, parents, activists or professionals or both – are ready to be part of the End Poverty plan. We all need to own this plan: to know the goals and own them. Together we wish to take part in a strong participatory process to make the next Anti-Poverty Plan the best ever. Those who live with poverty and social exclusion deserve it. They also should have the opportunity help develop this new plan. And when the plan is in place they should be able to play their part to ensure it is implemented. I have a role to play and I support this call to action and would like to be involve in the design, implementation and monitoring of our common plan!” Let us leave no one behind! All together in dignity!"