We ask you to consider the life of a circus animal: chained, caged, forced to live in cramped and totally unsuitable housing, and hauled from town to town in a “beast wagon”? Regardless of the number of generations that wild animals have been in captivity, captive-born wild animals do not lose the instincts and needs of wild animals. They retain their natural instincts to socialize and to roam freely. Circuses deny captive-born wild animals of their need to exhibit their natural behaviors.Our concern is the disparity between the conditions imposed on wild animals by circus life and the environment that these animals need for their emotional and physical well-being. Life in the wild cannot be replicated on the back of transportation trucks or at circus sites around the country.

Despite having served the community as a CE Supervisor for over 25 years, my sister and many 100's like her, have been denied pension rights, as laid down by the labour court recommendation of 2008. CE programmes have helped thousands of people who were long-term unemployed, or were disadvantaged, to get back to work by getting part-time and temporary work within the local community. The work that has been done has been vital, both from the communities' perspective and from the employees' perspective. CE Supervisors were, and still are, a vital part of each community and the trojan work carried out by each supervisor must be treated equally and fairly in comparison to all other state employees and therefore should be given access to occupational pension schemes.

There is a huge shortage of playschool and crèche places in the Dublin 13 area. Ciara’s Community Playschool has been operating for eight years within St. Francis of Assisi Primary School, Belmayne Sadly, they have built a new primary school but it has NO ROOM for our playschool

Kinsale Habour is one of the jewels in the Wild Atlantic Way's crown, and among the most famous locations for tourists who appreciate the history, culture, and pristine environment. The area around the town is often speckled with sailboats, busy fishing vessels, marine life, and tourists. Kinsale is a community that looks to the future while maintaining a deep sense of connection to its roots, and it the people take great pride in their town and its surroundings. Now the town's habour is under threat from a toxic and disruptive form of aquaculture called mussel dredging, which recently left a region of the Dublin Bay smelling like corpses [1]. Outside of Ireland, mussel dredging has had equally devastating effects in places like Vietnam where local fishermen discovered that the seabed had become a "graveyard" [2]. The knock on effects that this sort of rancid activity could have on Kinsale's tourism economy would be devastating for the town -- and for so little in return. It's also well known that mussel dredging can wreak havoc on the marine life around it [3]. Unlike more sustainable mussel harvesting practices, mussel dredging disrupts all of the seafloor life around it, leaving little left but jellyfish. Dolores Smith, a Dalkey resident who runs an inshore fishing and boat-hire company, summed up the effects on her livelihood: "The damage caused by the dredgers is absolutely enormous, there are stretches of seabed that have been obliterated." Therefore, we are asking the Aquaculture Licensing office of the Department of Agriculture to deny all mussel dredging licenses in the Kinsale Harbour. [1] https://afloat.ie/port-news/fishing/item/34164-mussel-dredgers-leave-dublin-coastline-smelling-like-corpses [2] https://newsable.asianetnews.com/south/vizhinjam-dredging-seabed-turns-graveyard-for-mussels [3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267035134_Mussel_dredging_impact_on_epifauna

This must be opposed not least for reasons of security. Show your support for not just keeping Clongriffin staffed but increasing the staff and security presence

The Food Dudes healthy eating programme sent 450,000 plastic wrapped portions of fruits and vegetables to over 800 primary schools in one year. This volume of plastic packaging is set to increase with 2,100 schools estimated to participate over the next three years. Single use non recyclable plastic packaging is of a huge environmental concern. Our seas are being choked by plastic waste and it's estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans. We urge Bord Bia who manage the scheme, financed by the Department of Agriculture and the Marine, to source sustainable eco friendly packaging for 2019-2020 Food Dudes programme.

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!!