Universal Basic Income will reach all members of society and will fill the many gaps in current provisions. It will fund basic living costs, help everyone to spend money in the real everyday economy and facilitate people to do essential caring and voluntary work. [1] The payment will promote stability in the crisis. It will also serve as an investment that will help society and the economy to recover and flourish when the immediate crisis has passed. This petition calls for a Universal Basic Income of *at least* €203 per week, because this is the current maximum rate of Jobseeker’s Benefit and other core social welfare benefits. Basic Income Ireland has always maintained that current benefit levels are inadequate and that the level of UBI should be based on the real cost of living. Although some people will receive higher payments during the current emergency, these are temporary. Universal Basic Income is universal, unconditional, and permanent, and so provides basic financial security to everyone. In introducing Universal Basic Income, the Irish government will lead the way in valuing all members of society as active participants in working through the Covid-19 crisis and beyond. For more details, please visit https://basicincome.ie/covid19 NOTES: [1] David McWilliams, ‘This is the time for economics with a human face’, Irish Times 21/3/20. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/david-mcwilliams-this-is-the-time-for-economics-with-a-human-face-1.4207017 Daniel Susskind, ‘Universal Basic Income is an affordable and feasible response to coronavirus’, Financial Times 18/3/20. https://www.ft.com/content/927d28e0-6847-11ea-a6ac-9122541af204?fbclid=IwAR0NAlBBfia_KzFrId6BZykOR5GHKgUv4Ari4y1G4SRvf8DdnPDKAAvscrc House of Commons Early Day Motion #302: Temporary universal basic income. https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/56765/temporary-universal-basic-income ‘Calls for UK basic income payment to cushion coronavirus impact’, The Guardian 19/3/20 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/19/calls-for-uk-basic-income-payment-to-cushion-coronavirus-impact ‘Why more than 500 political figures and academics globally have called for universal basic income in the fight against coronavirus’, Independent 18/3/20. https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/coronavirus-universal-basic-income-ubi-poverty-economy-business-migrants-a9408846.html

To save as many souls as is possible

Ireland imports almost 90% of it's food supplies. The CV-19 disruption to food import supply chains could have serious implications for food availability in the longer term. Even if supply chains are fully restored this crisis has called into question food security in Ireland. Local food security groups can help to address this.

To save lives, to reduce pressure on health service, to lead the way as a European nation showing how to halt this virus in its tracks.

Ben and Bernie have provided invaluable support to asylum seekers in Direct Provision over the years, particularly those in emergency Direct Provision centres without adequate material supports. They have been collecting donated items from members of the public and distributing them to asylum seekers. Ben and Bernie are longtime Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland supporters. They have stood with us and now it is time for everyone to stand with them. Benjamin Akhile received a deportation order on the 16th March 2020. He has been residing in Ireland for 14 years. Seven of those years he has been in a relationship with Bernie D'Arcy. During his time in Ireland Ben has completed many courses right up to Fetac 6 and told to apply for university next. His chosen profession was journalism and he has a degree in Mass communication. To be deported means that he would be sent back to a country where he has neither family or friends left. But he has the support and love of his partner Bernie and a wide circle of friends here in Ireland. As he suffers from diabetes 2, hypertension and high blood pressure Ben needs adequate access to medical care equivalent to the access here in Ireland. If deported back to Sierra Leone at 54 he will suffer greatly. He has enriched lives here in Ireland through his daily life and he's has been enriched. Revoke the deportation order Minister Helen McEntee

With the Coronavirus, Covid-19 pandemic worsening, Vacant Homes should be requisitioned NOW for people who are Homeless, hostels, hubs, hotels, rough sleepers and Direct Provision where social distancing and self-isolation is practically impossible and where the rates of transmission will be higher. There are over 40,000 apartments and houses Vacant in Dublin alone, e.g. thousands of short-term lets (Airbnb, etc.) should be requisitioned immediately. There should be serious measures introduced NOW to put people first and safeguard everyone in our society. Please sign and share.

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.