If TDs have to use public transport then Ireland will very quickly have a functioning, quality public transport system.

I am Deputy Leader for Party For Animal Welfare, Irelands newest Political Party. The protected Grey Seal is being blamed by fishermen and certain politicans for a loss in profits on Fish catches. Recently there have been calls for a cull in Ballina in Mayo and Dingle in Kerry. In Dingle, the Healy Raes support the fishermens call for a cull. It is not the Seals fault. Seals eat Fish. Our Seas are being overfished. Spanish supertrawlers are doing big damage including the world's second largest trawler which regularly catches on Irish Water and can catch 250 tonne of Fish daily. A Grey Seal eats 15 pound of Fish a day. There are also environmental changes to our Seas. Plastic and pollution. People are eating less Fish as more and more people are choosing plant based diets. Politicans like the Healy Raes think they can get away with just about anything to win a vote. And their solution to alot of situations is to kill, kill,kill. The same with culling Deer in Killarney National Park. The fishermen say that if they don't get a cull in Dingle, they will take matters into their own hands. In 2004 at least 60 Grey Seals were slaughtered on the Blaskets in an unauthorised cull. Nobody was ever charged. A cull now in Dingle will have major implications on the tourist industry. News of thus bloodshed will travel worldwide and this bad publicity will stop many from visiting. It is time all Animal lovers stand up to these politicians and fishermen.

Time to end the wholesale lying to get elected and the voracious corruption once elected. We should be able to sack underperforming or misbehaving TDs.

Mduduzi is a founding member of the Melting Pot Luck, which was established in early 2017. He is integral to our group and has been our chairperson since November 2019. The Melting Pot Luck wouldn't be what it is without Mduduzi. Together, we have organised multiple small and large-scale events which have brought the community of Galway and people living in Direct Provision together through food and music. Our group has helped to break down the barriers that separate people, building friendships and promoting intercultural understanding. Mduduzi is from Zimbabwe and has been living in Direct Provision in Galway for the last 3 years. Despite living in those challenging and limiting conditions he has successfully integrated in Galway and has become a key part of the community. Mduduzi embodies the spirit of what makes Galway great, and he works tirelessly to help improve things for people living here. He is an amazingly talented, positive, warm, hard-working and socially conscious individual and he has made a huge effort to integrate and engage with the community in Galway. As well as volunteering with The Melting Pot Luck for the past three years Mduduzi has been involved with numerous volunteer programs with organisations like Galway City Partnership (GCP) and Amnesty International, running educational workshops in schools and training sessions with professionals. He also developed a social enterprise initiative with The Melting Pot Luck, GCP and Tiny Traders market during summer 2019. He is actively involved in the Galway arts scene, DJing regularly with Galway African Diaspora at Áras na Gael. Mduduzi is also on the committee for the University of Sanctuary at NUIG where he studies Science. We are all absolutely shocked and devastated that our friend and chairperson of our group has been told he can’t stay in Ireland. Mduduzi deserves better than the situation he is now faced with. He deserves sanctuary, he deserves welcome, and above all, he deserves to make a home and build a future here in Ireland. This dream, and all the work he has done in the community is at risk of being destroyed if he is deported. TD Charlie Flanagan has the power to grant Mduduzi humanitarian leave to remain in Ireland, and we urge him to do so. We ask you to please sign this petition to support our campaign, and share it widely with your contacts. Thank you.

RTE is the national broadcaster and it should live up to its responsibilities as a neutral actor and not show favor towards particular political parties.

You can do your bit to get candidates to endorse the charter by emailing them and sending them to the link to the online petition containing the charter and 19-point reform programme. Tell them why signing the charter is important to you. Make sure to tell the candidates to include their party/affiliation when they sign the charter. SWAN supporters are also asked to support the principles in the charter by using the hashtag #SWs4Change in #GE2020 and signing up to the charter. If a candidate comes to your door canvassing hand them a hardcopy of the charter (downloadable pdf on our wordpress blog, link below) and ask them to sign up to it. Tweet us a picture of the signed charter using the hashtag #SWs4Change. Thanks for doing your bit for social justice ahead of #GE2020. Let us know how you get on and who signs the charter by tweeting us @SWAN_IRL and using the hashtag #SWs4Change.

Students here pay around £4000 per year to attend university. These fees are a barrier to students from working class backgrounds and financial issues are a major cause of student distress and anxiety. The burden of balancing the books of the new NI Assembly should not be placed on our young people. Education is a right and should not be a commodity.

Our schools are facing overwhelming challenges in the provision of education for our children with special needs. The campaign for The Right Inclusion Model for Every Child calls for the State to provide for the rights of every child to an education. To respect the rights of all of our children, sufficient resources must be provided to those who have special educational needs. The Proclamation of our Republic promises to ‘cherish all the children of the nation equally’. Under the current model, inadequate resourcing means that children with additional needs are not guaranteed their right to equal access to education. The goal of our campaign is to achieve cross-party support for The Right Inclusion Model for Every Child ahead of the General Election and to have the principles of this model included on the next Programme for Government. We assert that The Right Inclusion Model for Every Child must include; • SNA allocation to match the needs of the children • Transparency in the Process: There are currently not enough SNAs in the system to match the needs and the appeals process is not fit for purpose. The proposed General Allocation Model cannot match the needs going forward, given that current needs are not being met. Meaningful consultation with schools, parents and children’s advocacy groups is necessary to inform the right inclusion model. • Multi-Disciplinary teams: Immediate removal of waiting lists for Assessment of Need to ensure timely, appropriate access to multi-disciplinary services. This will require considerable increases in staffing and resourcing of the various services. • Options for children and their families: To have options of placements in mainstream schools, special classes within mainstream schools, and special schools according to each child’s needs. We are asking for every General Election Candidate to sign up to our campaign and to pledge to deliver The Right Inclusion Model for Every Child as a matter of priority in the next government.

The climate crisis is entirely different from all other issues in this general election campaign. It is global in scope, raising genuine existential risk for the stability of all human civilisation within the lifetime of young people already of voting age. It transcends and dwarfs the other issues: there can be no enduring solution to housing, healthcare, education, economic development, peace or justice unless there is a successful response to the climate crisis. For Ireland to now play even its minimal fair share in such a global response would require fundamental and disruptive changes in current political priorities. It is utterly impossible to do justice to this issue without a full debate devoted exclusively to it, and driven by an audience selected explicitly to represent future generations who are entirely reliant on the decisions being made now. "We need to focus every inch of our being on climate change. Because if we fail to do so, then all of our achievements and progress will be for nothing. And all that will remain of our political leaders’ legacy will be the greatest failure of human history. And they will be remembered as the greatest villains of all time because they have chosen not to listen and not to act." - Greta Thunberg, speech to the European Economic and Social Committee, February 2019. [Note: This is now a joint/merged petition based on two similar but independent initiatives. The first was created by Nikki Ffrench Davis, the second by Barry McMullin.] [Image credit: sculpture by Isaac Cordal, "Follow the leaders," Berlin, Germany, April 2011.]

After the apalling news that the Dublin Region Homeless Executive injured a man sleeping in a tent, I'm calling on the Council and Waterways Ireland to stop removing people and tents at all. [1] People are just trying to take shelter in whatever way they can and literally using machinery to move them on is not fine and in this case led to serious and life-changing consquences. The right services need to be provided for people experiencing homelessness, but I don't think we should move on people from where they have chosen to take shelter. They are not bothering anyone by being there. [1] https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/0115/1107513-dublin-homeless/

We need a safe place for our children and adults to cycle on the road for commuting to school and work. This would also provide for recreational cycling and people to enjoy the coast in a safe and peaceful manner. At the moment there is no continuous safe cycling for people in DLR. Most people currently don't cycle due to the dangerous nature of the roads in DLR. This could provide an impetus for cycling with a link all the way from Booterstown to Sandycove. There's been talk of a cycleway along the coast for over 20 years and still no sign of it.

-Reduce commuter traffic. -Reduce toxic fumes. -Reduce commuter time. -Get exercise. -Reduce cost of commute. -Safety, country roads are too dangerous to cycle.