Consent is a very important topic that isn’t taught in secondary schools around the country as it is not part of the curriculum, many secondary school students are uneducated about sexual consent and I think it is a very important topic which needs to be introduced into the RSE programmes in irish secondary schools.

Part of the investment will include a tour "which will celebrate the life and times of Charles Stewart Parnell at Avondale House" This is a worthy and worthwhile initiative. On the other hand it could create a situation where 2 Irish women who did immense campaigning for Womens rights in Ireland Anna and Fanny Parnell get erased from history. Anna Parnell was an Irish nationalist who founded the Ladies Land League in 1880. The Ladies Land League took over the work of the Irish Land League when its male leaders were jailed. The Ladies Land League continued the Land League campaigns against landlordism in Ireland and was organised in 6 countries with 321 branches. Anna Parnell was its effective leader and lead it in many campaigns providing welfare and assistance to many Irish people. Fanny Parnell was an Irish nationalist and poet who wrote extensive about Irish nationalism and poverty in Ireland. She cofounded the Ladies Land League with her Sister Anna in 1880. In investing 8 million in a tourist attraction "which will celebrate the life and times of Charles Stewart Parnell at Avondale House" it is really important not to erase the important legacy of his Sisters. Pictures of Anna and Fanny Parnell above Further information on Anna and Fanny Parnell https://www.historyireland.com/home-rule/anna-fanny-parnell/ http://www.countywicklowheritage.org/page_id__93_path__0p3p.aspx

At the end of 2018 Minister for Health Simon Harris said that he wanted to do everything he could to reduce crisis pregnancies including providing greater access to free contraception. He said that it would be a legislative priority in 2019 to make female contraception more widely available.[1] The expense of accessing contraception can be prohibitive. Many women have neither medical cards nor funds for contraceptives, or emergency contraception. They also often have to pay for an initial doctor’s consultation as well as repeat appointments for prescription renewal. The proposal for “expanded access” to condoms is welcome, people need to be able to avail of the best form of contraception for their bodies and situation. We call on the new Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly to ensure that free access and free provision of all methods of contraception to the public is promptly introduced as soon as possible in 2020. [1] https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/vending-machines-may-be-used-to-distribute-free-condoms-says-hse-1.3745092

RTE allows the AA to broadcast its “Roadwatch” segment on national radio 150 times per week. This is deeply inappropriate and unethical and is in breach of RTE’s own rules on sponsorship. RTE must end the practice immediately. The AA is not an impartial provider of neutral information. It is a political lobbyist on behalf of the car industry - its primary function is to lobby Government. It is also a multi-national insurance company with annual revenue of over €1 billion. AA Roadwatch performs no useful function. It serves only as an advertisement for the AA and the normalisation of car culture. Its prevalence on the airwaves suggests sitting in daily gridlock is a normal and inevitable part of the human experience. Every day, numerous times an hour, our national broadcaster places the reporting of daily rush hour traffic next to news items of national and international significance. Besides the fact that the “service” provided by AA Roadwatch is of little or no value (“it’s slow but moving at the Jack Lynch Tunnel”), it is a clear breach of RTE’s sponsorship guidelines (sponsorship is defined a contribution made in return for promotion of the sponsor’s name). 1. No sponsorship of news programmes is allowed. 2. “A sponsor must not have any editorial input or involvement in programming” 3. “Any body whose intents are wholly or mainly political in nature may not be a sponsor”. RTE must end the broadcast of AA Roadwatch immediately. Many thanks to William Campbell of Here's How for his work on this. I highly recommend his podcast on this topic.

Imagine if Ireland was able to implement a single policy that could reduce traffic, combat climate change, let people take up jobs they couldn’t before, make life in rural Ireland easier and reduce the cost of living all at once. And it only took a year or two to get it up and running. It may sound too good to be true but free public transport could do all this and we want to pilot it in Galway during 2020. Dear Minister Ross, Minister Bruton, and Minister Donohue, We, the people of Galway, ask you to trial free-fare public transport in Galway during 2020. This a policy that has been piloted across Europe and is working. In Aubagne, a French city of 100,000 people, public transport ridership increased by 142% and car trips decreased by 10% once free public transport was introduced. Overall, there was a reduction in public expenditure per journey of 48% from €3.93 to €2.04. This policy of fare-free public transport could allow the following outcomes across Ireland: * Reduction in traffic and commute time in cities and counties * Reducing our climate emissions and contributing towards our stated ambition to make Ireland a leader in tackling climate change * Increased economic activity and lower social welfare costs through improved social mobility and access to jobs and lower cost housing * Improved rural mobility with better public transport options in rural Ireland * Reduced cost of living through lower fares and giving families the option of giving up second cars With Galway welcoming the world to the European Capital of Culture in 2020, and our well-documented traffic problems, Galway 2020 is the perfect place and time to pilot this policy. We respectfully request that the Department of Transport and Department of Climate Action would immediately begin design and costing a pilot for free-fare public transport in Galway during 2020 and that the Department of Finance would allocate for this pilot in the 2020 Finance Bill or as part of the Climate Action Fund. We would ask that this pilot allows for: * An increase in bus capacity in Galway city and county so that buses are more frequent and reliable * A redesign of the route network including multiple crossings of the bridges and avoiding all bus traffic going through the city centre * The addition of new buses designs with modern interiors (similar to BRT designs like Glider in Belfast) that make the bus experience more pleasant * A proper study of the economic, environmental and social outcomes of the pilot. We are available to meet with you at your earliest convenience to outline our request and work with you to make it happen. Yours sincerely, Galway Free Public Transport Campaign

Here are three fundamental problems with the Public Services Card: • The card may be illegal under European law. • The card targets economically vulnerable people, such as those in receipt of social welfare, pension, child benefit or State grants. • It has cost an estimated €60 million to roll out, with savings of only €2.5million in welfare fraud, according to the Department of Social Welfare. Here are some more problems: • It collects and stores more data than necessary for the Government’s purpose of “streamlining services”. There is no independent body overseeing the use, sharing, storage and security of this data. As always with mass storage of data, there is a high risk of a security breach. • The Data Protection Commissioner has investigated the card’s legality. • The government has said it is not collecting extremely sensitive biometric data, yet the card does require a photo which is subject to analysis by an arithmetic template. • It contradicts the State’s position on privacy at the EU. The Minister for Foreign Affairs is looking for an opt-out of proposed EU ID card biometrics, yet the Department of Social Protection is insisting on PSC biometrics. • Both the state and the Data Protection Commissioner have refused to publicise information regarding the ongoing investigation. The Department of Social Protection flat-out refused to provide an interim report via our freedom of information request to them. Similarly, the Data Protection Officer will not share any of their reports on the matter - only ‘high level findings’. But it’s necessary in order to prevent welfare cheats, isn’t it? • Welfare fraud is far less common than the State would like you to believe. White-collar crime robs the taxpayer of much more every year. • There are better, less invasive ways to achieve this aim. • It doesn’t appear the card is saving the state money in this regard. (See above: fundamental problems). In summary, the Public Services Card is an infringement on your right to privacy and it has to be stopped!!

People from the West and South Offaly area have to travel 45 minutes to Tullamore for access to a doctor outside of office hours. The MIDOC service offered out of hours doctors in Birr up to last year, when the service was suddenly withdrawn without warning or explanation.

St Mary's & St Gerard's NS Enniskerry is a small school serving 220 students. The closest suitable secondary schools to St Mary's & St Gerard's NS are Presentation College, Bray; Loreto Secondary School, Bray; Woodbrook College, Bray; and St Gerard's School. Success in obtaining a place in 1st Year in a local secondary school is proving most difficult for some students. This issue arises due to the following: (i) For some secondary schools St Mary's & St Gerard's students are not allocated a place due to that secondary school favouring other national schools as feeder schools (ii) For other secondary schools St Mary's & St Gerard's students are not allocated a place due to the secondary schools operating a lottery system with some St Mary's & St Gerard's students being allocated a place too far down the waiting list. It is our belief that the right of our children to appropriate local secondary school education is being compromised due to the fact that St Mary's & St Gerard's is not a designated feeder school. Please sign this Petition to notify the school’s Board of Management and the Department of Education about our concerns.

We need to have a conversation about its location, size, facilities, and cost. If we, the people, are to spend €2 billion, we need to be consulted about how our money is being spent. The hospital, as currently scoped, is not sized for the current population. It will not be coastguard helicopter accessible in cases of emergency. Co-located with a maternity hospital would be desirable. There is no denying that we need and want the best of care for our children, but the Children's Hospital project in its current runaway state, is dangerously close to making us the laughing stock of the world. We demand more transparency and accountability. Re-open the discussion on location. Rigorously consult the people now.

The Tholsel or Town Hall in Kilkenny city is a public building and a protected structure, classified as 'a substantial edifice of national significance, forming an imposing centre piece in High Street'. We, the people of Kilkenny, love it. We love its public Arcade that welcomes musicians, artists, craftspeople, jugglers, carol singers and the Crib at Christmas, art exhibitions in the summer and meetings, remembrances, public gatherings and community fundraising events all year round. This is Kilkenny's public space, our Agora. We don't want it enclosed, reduced in size, or glassed in for use as a ticket office, or anything else. We're also proud of the ceremonial staircase within the building. We don't want to lose this either. It's part of who we are, part of the Tholsel that we love. Leave it alone.

Adults who came to Ireland as children should not be forced to pay the same amount for citizenship as someone who chose to come to the country as an adult and has lived in the country of Ireland for 5 years. There are currently people living abroad that have never and will never step foot on Irish soil that are more entitled to Irish citizenship because they have parents or grandparents who are Irish. These adults were raised in Irish culture and identify culturally as Irish. Many speak or have some level of the Irish language, went to Irish primary and secondary schools, attended Irish colleges, play Irish sports such as hurling and Gaelic football with their local communities, vote in local Irish elections, are members of Irish political parties, currently have employment in Ireland and are paying taxes in Ireland. They are as much a part of Ireland and Irish society as a child born in the country. They should not be expected to pay such exorbitant fees for a piece of paper that tells them they are officially an Irish citizen when it is clear that they are already Irish. No-one should be rejected or taken advantage of by the country they call their home so I ask for your support to help adults who were raised in Ireland to be given the citizenship they deserve.

In a 2008 native woodland survey conducted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Toon Woods, a patchwork mosaic of various woodland types, was deemed to be the highest scoring unprotected site in the country. Yet large swathes of these woods were destroyed under a felling license that has now been revoked. The Dept of Agriculture issued a replanting order in March 2019. Toon Woods contain one of Ireland's strongest surviving colonies of red squirrels, a much-loved protected species who lost their shelter and their winter stores in the felling. This sessile oak woodland, ecologically an extension of the Gearagh, is well-known to sustain other protected species. A nationally important lesser horseshoe bat maternity roost exists only a few hundred metres from the destroyed area, while the pristine Toon river provides habitat for freshwater pearl mussels, a red-listed species. One ecologist who visited the site noted the absence of infrastructure to prevent soil run-off into the Toon river, threatening the freshwater mussel which cannot tolerate silt, as well as the nearby Gearagh, a Natural 2000 site and Special Area of Conservation, into which the Toon flows. Malcolm Noonan has the power to confer full NHA status on the Toon woods, as was proposed by then Chief Scientist Dr John Cross in 2013, following a survey commissioned by NPWS. Climate change poses a major threat to our future well-being and the protection of our oak woodlands is essential if we are to create natural buffers to save our endangered native species. They account for less than 2% of our forests. We can do so much better. Most of Toon woods are still intact but they are in urgent need of your intervention. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/tree-felling-at-ireland-s-finest-undesignated-native-woodland-halted-1.3777868