PESCO was rushed through the Dail by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in 2017 without enough attention or coverage.(1) Under PESCO Ireland will increase its military spending which is currently approx. €1billion per year by up to as much as €6billion per year.(2) Instead of weaponry these enormous financial resources could be constructively spent tackling the housing and health crises. (3) The goal of the PESCO agreement is to integrate the armed forces of all the members and create an EU army. This runs completely counter to Ireland's peaceful role as a neutral state. Ireland can and should leave PESCO. RESCIND PESCO before it's too late. More info: The People's Movement https://www.facebook.com/peoplesmovementireland/ (1) https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/2017-12-07/38/ (2) https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/concerns-government-will-have-to-commit-to-annual-3bn-defence-bill-if-they-join-pesco-817557.html (3) https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/if-we-are-heading-for-an-eu-army-what-does-that-mean-for-irish-neutrality-4331443-Nov2018/

These trees provide homes to wildlife, shade, beauty, and so much more. These are old trees, taking them out affects the environment in a very hurtful way.

In a very wild and barren landscape, there are very few forests in Glenveagh National Park. The trees offer protection for wildlife, allowing many mycelium species to flourish, insects, birds, and all wildlife benefit from the forest. The roots help reduce flooding with this enormous amount of rainfall, and the lake often coming up on the banks. The Trees, take in this access moisture. They also are wind shelter and the original estate owners planted these forests for this reason. Wind Shelter, Nature Preservation, Wildlife shelter, and simple enjoyment of the beauty and peace of the forest. These trees that are already being cut along the river path, are well over a hundred years old. What the Native Americans call "Grandmother Trees". Please stop cutting and start loving the trees of Glenveagh!

1. The annual IRP renewal requirement has become a nuisance for international post-graduate research students, as it hinders their ability to attend research seminars, conferences, workshops, summer schools and research visits within & outside EU. [A] 2. The entire process of: a. Finding an appointment; b. Arranging the required documents; c. Attending the appointment in person; d. Waiting for the IRP to arrive; e. Getting a bank draft ready; f. Applying for a multi-entry visa via An POST; g. Followed by the hassle of applying for country or region specific visa i.e., Schengen visa, is just too time consuming and cumbersome for us. 3. The entire process needs to be rethought if high-quality research outputs are expected to be delivered by highly-qualified, international post-graduate research students. [A] Please see https://visaguide.world/europe/schengen-visa

Current Irish government forestry policy is causing huge damage to communities and the environment in our county of Leitrim and all across Ireland. The planting of conifers on bogs and on soils with high organic matter on an industrial scale is releasing very large amounts of carbon and seriously damaging our environment. The trees in these plantations are not tying up or storing as much carbon as is being released by this highly damaging practices. Peatlands are the superheroes of ecosystems: purifying water, sometimes mitigating flooding and providing a home for rare species. And they beat nearly every system when it comes to carbon storage. Known peatlands only cover about 3% of the world’s land surface, but store at least twice as much carbon as all of Earth’s standing forests. In addition, at least one-third of the world’s organic soil carbon, which plays a vital role in mitigating climate change and stabilizing the carbon cycle, is in peatlands. It has taken 11 thousand years to grow these bogs and soils and these very sites are being destroyed in a matter of hours by forestry practices. We call on the Irish government to immediately cease this damaging forestry system.

To date, 25 species of cetaceans have been recorded in Irish waters (Lusher at al., 2018). All cetaceans, pinnipeds; including harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) are protected in Ireland under a range of national and international legislation. Under the Wildlife Act (1976) and amendments (2000, 2005, 2010 and 2012), it is an offence to intentionally hunt, injure, wilfully interfere with or disturb or destroy the resting or breeding place of a protected species (except under licence or permit from the department). The 1976 Wildlife Act applies out to the 12 nm limit of Irish territorial waters. Additionally, all cetaceans, pinnipeds and otter and are protected under the EU Habitats Directive, where all cetaceans are included in Annex IV of the Directive as species ‘in need of strict protection’. Under this Directive, the harbour porpoise, bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), grey seal, harbour seal and Eurasian Otter are listed under Annex II, which identifies these species of community interest and whose conservation requires the designation of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) (O’ Brien, 2016). 3. Man-made noise generated from dredging operations, both from the physical presence of the dredger, and increased water turbidity within the area have potential to cause low levels of disturbance, including the masking of communication and induce behavioural impacts such as displacement from important habitat (O’Brien, 2016). Recently published literature on the impacts of dredging on marine mammals in Aberdeen Harbour found that bottlenose dolphins exhibited avoidance behaviour to dredging in a highly urbanised foraging patch, despite the expected high level of tolerance given the high level of vessel activity in the area (Pirotta et al., 2013). A similar review by Todd et al., (2014) found that in regard to dredging activities, the effect on marine mammals depends on the type of dredger used, state of operation, local sound propagation conditions and the receiver’s sensitivity and bandwidth of hearing. It also highlighted the potential for accidental collision with marine mammals. The review concluded that noise from dredging although perceived as being below the injury threshold for permanent hearing loss (PTS), according to criteria outlined in Southall et al., (2007), highlighted the potential for temporary damage to hearing (TTS) to marine mammals, such as the harbour porpoise after prolonged periods of exposure, also found in a more recent study (Kastelein et al., 2012). Indirect impacts from exposure of marine mammals to anthropogenic noise from dredging operations can result in changes to protected species physical environments, affecting prey distribution and introducing toxins and pollutants from dredge spoil.

THE EASY WAY TO COVER STUFF UP, IS TO BURY IT, IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, STATING IT'S FOR OUR OWN GOOD OR IN THE INTERESTS OF NATIONAL SECURITY. IN LAY MAN'S TERMS, THAT MEANS, THEY ARE COVERING UP FOR PADEOPHILES AND MURDERERS THAT ARE MOST LIKELY STILL ALIVE AND MORE THAN LIKELY, THESE ARE HIGH PROFILE PEOPLE. DO NOT ALLOW YOUR INTELLIGENCE TO BE INSULTED. LOCKED IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES FOR 75 YEARS MEANS. COVER UP.

To Sarah McTernan We call on you not to perform in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Israel. It is a great honour and testament to your talent to be selected to represent Ireland, yet we must ask you to listen to the call from Palestinian artists, journalists and civil society organisations for people of conscience to refuse to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel due to that state’s oppression of the Palestinian people. We support that call, as do thousands of people in Ireland and internationally, and are respectfully asking that you decline to take part in this year’s Eurovision. While Israel - a state which has repeatedly been accused of war crimes by the United Nations and human rights organisations, and openly boasts of how it uses art and culture to whitewash its crimes - continues its oppression of the Palestinian people, no artist of conscience should participate in this ‘culturewashing’ event. Performing at the Eurovision in Israel is a deeply political act; you will be expected to sing for 500 members of the Israeli military who have had seats reserved by the state. We sincerely hope that you will not countenance performing for a military which just last week was found by a UN Commission of Inquiry to likely have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by killing deliberately targeting and killing civilians, including children, medics, journalists and disabled people in its attacks on unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza. These attacks are ongoing on a daily basis, and it should be unconscionable for any artist representing Ireland to be entertaining members of this military just a few miles down the road. Ireland has a proud tradition of standing with the oppressed and against injustice and we sincerely hope you will take this opportunity to stand on the right side of history by refraining from crossing the Palestinian picket line. It would be a principled stand for freedom, justice, equality and a show of solidarity and empathy with the oppressed.

"Thousands of oral and written testimonies documenting the abuse of children in residential institutions and elsewhere here are to be sealed and locked away from public scrutiny for 75 years under legislation. An estimated two million documents relating to the work of three commissions - the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, the Residential Institutions Redress Board and the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee - will be preserved for future generations under the Retention of Records Bill. Announcing publication of the bill, Minister for Education Joe McHugh said he had agreed to a request from Minister for Children Katherine Zappone that the legislation include a review clause that can be invoked in 25 years' time. Mr McHugh said he was very conscious of the agreement made with survivors around anonymity and confidentiality in giving testimony to the inquiries. He said there was a balance to be struck between the public interest and the need to preserve material for future generations, and the need for sensitivity to be shown towards survivors. The minister said it was "a difficult issue" and that assuring survivors who gave testimonies of anonymity and confidentiality was critical. Once the legislation is commenced the documents will be sent to the national archives and sealed. No one will be granted access and provisions such as those normally available under Freedom of information legislation will not apply. In 2009 the Dáil passed a motion calling for the retention of the documents. "We want to ensure records of such huge historical importance are preserved while at the same time respecting the real-life stories and deeply personal testimony of all of the individuals who engaged with the redress bodies," Mr McHugh said. "Seventy-five years is a very long period of time to restrict access to records but it is essential given the sensitivity of the material," he added. " Please share the truth. Thank you all. 💚

Plastic waste is proving more and more of a problem, it doesn't break down and has a negative impact on the environment. If we install drinking fountains and water bottle filling stations at certain places in the town for example the park it may encourage people to ditch single use plastics like plastic water bottles and move towards more environmentally friendly alternatives like reusable water canteens.

The 84x bus service is a popular service for commuters in Kilcoole, Newcastle, Greystones and Bray. Recently the National Transport Authority have been asked by Wicklow County Council members and by other local representatives to increase the 84x service. In response to these requests The National Transport Authority told Wicklow County Council on Monday 4th March "There are no promises, we will see what happens in the months ahead". This response is not good enough and we are now publicly petitioning on this issue. In the last few years there has been increased demand on the service because of increased housing in Greystones and surrounding areas. The increased demand has meant increased usage and consequently the following: congestion on the service, commuters not being able to regularly use the service because the buses are so full, increased car usage, decreased quality of life due to increased traffic congestion. In 2018 Wicklow County Council recently did some research on commuters living in County Wicklow and found some interesting data on commuters including students and employees. It found that there is a large demand for commuting from Bray and Greystones into Dublin. It found that 77% of commuters who use buses in County Wicklow are unhappy with their commute. It also found that 69% of County Wicklow Commuters would like more frequent bus services. (Source Wicklow County Council 2018 Commuter survey (https://www.wicklow.ie/Portals/0/Documents/Business/Business-Environment/Wicklow-Facts-Figures/Commuter%20Study%20Report.pdf) A large reason for this is increased demand in the Greystones/Kilcoole area. Since the last census there are roughly about 1 thousand houses that have been built or are at present being built in the Greystones area (Source: Wicklow County Council Meeting September 2018 https://www.wicklow.ie/Portals/0/Documents/Council%20Meetings/Minutes-Agendas/2018/10%2009%2018%20SPECIAL%20MEETING%20COUNTY%20COUNCIL.pdf) . This includes the Marine area at Greystones, Wavely estate, Seagreen estate, Glenheron estate amongst others. In the Greystones area there is already quite a high percentage of local residents who commute for work (22.9%) according to the last census. (Source Oireachtas constituency census dashboards http://dashboards.oireachtas.ie/dashboard.php?s=transport&q=t1) Given the above; a) the fact that Wicklow residents overall who commute by bus are unhappy with the service provided, b) the fact that many citizens in Bray and Greystones feel there are not enough buses and that they drive as a result and c) the fact there are a thousand new houses in the Greystones area since the 2016 census. We respectfully request the NTA and Dublin Bus to provide extra 84x morning buses. In addition to this a large number of commuters in Bray and Greystones repeatedly get left behind on the evening service commute to Bray and Greystones from Dublin City Centre. The 84x is congested and full on an extremely regular basis. Many commuters who live in areas such as Foxrock, Deansgrange use the 84x and these commuters can often use other services along the N11 corridor including the 46a and 145. They feel it is completely unfair for them that users who can use other alternate routes such as the 145 or 46a mean they cannot use the evening service to get to Bray or Greystones. In order to maximise use for commuters in Bray and Greystones and encourage commuters to use alternate routes available to them we respectfully request that the 84x would not allow passengers to disembark between UCD and Loughlinstown Hospital. We believe these 2 changes would increase commuter satisfaction for County Wicklow Bus Commuters and also would increase the quality of life overall for citizens in Bray and Greystones.

This waste dump has for the last 21 years polluted one of our Countries most important Wildlife Habitats. The Inch Island Wildlife Reserve is an SAC and is home to an abundance of protected species of animals and birds. It is most significant in its position at the foot of Grianan of Aileach from which visitors can see the spectacular beauty of Lough Swilly and the flash of white of the swans, whom alongside the otters and migratory birds share this place as their protected home. This habitat is at risk of being assigned to history, if action is not taken soon. There is no planet B.....