Covid-19 shows us all who the real key workers are in our society. As they continue to work to treat the sick, support the vulnerable and keep the country going, they must be provided with the equipment tha will keep them safe and stop the virus spreading.

In the very near future, thousands of private renters across Northern Ireland will face huge reductions in their income and be unable to pay their rent. Being evicted during the Covid-19 crisis will mean being unable to stay safe and healthy, and not spread the virus. The government has announced "mortgage holidays" for landlords and home-owners and Cities in the US including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco have already taken action to stop evictions. Now it's time to give renters in Northern Ireland the protections they need to keep their homes during the coronavirus crisis.

The COVID-19 crisis has come to us almost by surprise, it has spread around the world in a way that has made us take drastic measures to stop it. Socially, occupationally and psychologically it is having repercussions on the entire population. We have had to defer our plans, stop our social life. In most, we have had to stop working. Closed companies, people who have lost their jobs or are on layoff and requiring financial aid from the State since they have lost their wages, unemployed people who are not able to find employment at the moment, self-employed workers who have seen their income decrease to more than 50%... Still, spending life continues its normal course. People continue to buy food and other household utilities, we continue to pay our bills. Visits the doctors, medication payments have increased ... Circumstances that are making the daily life a struggle. Being in isolation, locked up at home, is part of the precaution to be infected. But more important, it is a means of preventing the virus from spreading further and causing further social harm. Then, being in solidary with the rest of the community. This circumstance will be translated into higher holdhouses bills, added to less income, more social needs, increase of the poverty. Day by day it will get worse and worse. I ask to the electrical and gas companies to put themselves in the shoes of their customers. (I am writing to you now) I ask you, as a person to person, to be empathic with the circumstances. We all are responsible for the welfare of the rest. We all can make it work.

This is a major challenge to the health well being of all our communities. It is crucial to stop the spread of the infection. It is recognizing the right of all to health and life.

Because of restrictions which are required to save lives, during this emergency, many businesses and employees will face unprecedented strain on their finances, with businesses forced to shut and employees suddenly laid off. The proposed moratorium is aimed at preventing the health emergency becoming a long term economic emergency and adding to the homeless crisis. The key is that it needs to be not just a moratorium on payment, but a moratorium on the rent and interest being incurred. Otherwise at the end of the moratorium landlords/banks could come looking for, say, 3 months arrears resulting in a spate of people getting evicted and businesses closing down. It is recognised that this proposal interferes with property rights, but is proportionate to the unprecedented situation and to the restrictions being placed on people and the use of their property, so would be constitutional. This is an extreme measure, but a necessary one.

A decision has been made to rename Anglesea Street Terence McSwiney Street. This should not be allowed to happen. My family lived on Anglesea Street for over a century. Are previous dwellers of Anglesea Street, like the Burkes, the Cuthberts, the Murphys, the Heaphys, the Connollys, the Carberys, the Hayes, the Bowes, the O'Neills, the Leahys, to have their history obliterated due to an omission by the Council to mark McSwiney's name in some other way during the past 100 years. Reserve the name of Terence McSwiney for another street and do not rob our families and neighbours of our past.

There is an element of the Irish population that doesn’t seem to understand the consequences of social distancing during a time when Covid 19 is infecting more people and we have yet to develop a vaccine

The Coronavirus is beyond politics. Now is the time for all who live on this island, to stand together to face this common threat. An emergency plan must be put in place to protect us all, and prioritising those most at risk such as care home residents, asylum seekers, older people, and the homeless.

A toxic combination of being cut off from family and friends, shut refuges, financial hardship, loss of work, closed schools and community services means women experiencing violence are in great danger because of Covid19. The Courts are barely open and even though they say they'll continue to hear emergency domestic violence cases, it's clear that it victims won't be able to get emergency barring orders because all other services they need - from childcare, support workers, transport, legal advice will be either non-existent or too hard to access. Its not clear what will happen if we are ordered to go into full lockdown. Women and children experiencing violence will effectively be locked in with violent partners - and no support system. The Istanbul Convention to which Ireland is a signatory requires for special measures to be taken to prevent and protect women from gender-based violence. 22 other European Countries that are signatories to the Istanbul Convention have already granted special powers to police to make Emergency Barring Orders Regions that have already seen large numbers of Covid-19 cases such as China and have taken measures to reduce the spread by confining people to their homes have reported significant increases in incidents of domestic violence. The time to act is now. About Sisi Sisi is a collective of survivors of intimate abuse in Ireland. It formed in Aug 2018 as an action group and voice for women. This is a unique survivor led platform in Ireland, and is a highly innovative way to bring lived survivor experience to inform state institutions and policies. Our vision is an Ireland where women are free from violence, including sexual abuse and coercive control. Our mission is to support women survivors of violence, including domestic abuse and coercive control, to be leaders, and to grow and develop utilizing their lived experiences and by taking collective action in the pursuit of freedom, equality and structural change.

This is a vital and very practical measure that will help so many people and is achievable if you get behind it in the real interests of social solidarity. Please get this sharing and signing and we'll get the Government to act immediately.

As the full scale of the public health challenge posed by the coronavirus becomes clear, there is cause for concern around the ability of the two tier health system to cope with the projected number of cases. In the Republic of Ireland there are 5.2 intensive care unit (ICU) beds per 100,000 people (249 total and a further 5.3 per 100k in the North). This is against an EU average of 11.5 ICU beds per 100k. In Italy, where the outbreak is currently at its worst, there are 12.5 ICU beds per 100k and Iran, there are 4.6 per 100k. In terms of ICU bed capacity, we are closer to Iran than we are to Italy or the European average. When it comes to ICU staffing - we have less than half the number of Intensive Care consultants that state-commissioned audits have recommended and a critical shortage of ICU nursing staff too. This is the legacy of underfunding in public healthcare and of failure by the traditional governing parties to take the concerns of frontline health professionals seriously. Private hospitals in the South have between 40 and 50 ICU beds, plus surgical beds that could be repurposed for intensive care in some cases. In a letter from the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) to members across Europe last week, Italian doctors reported roughly 10% of #Covid19 cases required ICU care. If cases approach the levels that epidemiological models predict, this would mean chaos for patients, staff and public health. Covid-19 is exposing private medicine for the sham it is. Private hospitals, insurers and pharmaceutical companies have profited off the erosion of the public system, while people suffer. We desperately need to move to a well-funded, single-tier national health service that takes care of people according to medical need and not the size of their wallets. To deal with this crisis, the state should immediately move to bring private ICU and other beds into public control to meet demand as cases increase. Private staff should be seconded to the public system as required and health professionals in the public system should be consulted to ensure adequate staffing and resources.

Dublin City Council must make Raheny crossroads safe for pedestrians. The Council must remove the filtering lane for cars turning left at Raheny Church. This lane is lethally dangerous as cars routinely ignore the green man. It is only a matter of time before there is a tragedy. The filtering lane serves no function for pedestrians other than to needlessly add another set of traffic lights to their journey. Removing the filtering lane means pedestrians will no longer have to cross the road in two stages, stopping on the traffic island. The traffic island is nobody's destination so why do pedestrians have to wait there? Cars need only one green light to proceed so why do pedestrians have to get two green men to cross the road fully? There is no filtering lane or traffic island at any other corner of the crossroads and vehicles are perfectly capable of turning left at each of those corners. Why should it be any different at the corner at Raheny Church? It is time we started to prioritise sustainable transport. This is something Dublin City Council says it is committed to. It is time for the Council to live up to its fine words.