Currently, pets such as dogs and cats are restricted from travelling on buses and taxis unless they are contained. This can be difficult in emergency situations, with regard to taxis requiring the pet to be 'contained' regardless of the welfare of the animal. I have experienced this recently and find it appalling. This is a serious issue which needs to be amended. This only exists in Ireland. In the UK pet are allowed to travel freely and are not forced into containers that could harm their wellbeing. If it works there, then it can work here! Please, if you agree that pets shouldn't have to be needlessly contained on buses and taxis, can you sign and share this petition to show The Taoiseach where you stand?

Tell the Councillors that the Sean McDermott Street Magdalene site must be preserved as a national centre for commemoration and education. The institutional and clerical abuses that have caused pain and destruction to so many people and families in Ireland must be acknowledged. We must never forget, and we must never allow them to happen again. This is the new Ireland. We can and must remember. We must honour survivors when they say: "I’d like them to acknowledge what has happened and accept what has happened - instead of saying, ‘oh yes I’m sorry,’ but no meaning behind it - and make sure it never ever, ever happens again." (Link to http://jfmresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/JFMR-report-to-CAT-for-the-session-2017-Main-Report.pdf ) We must respect the survivors who tell us: "I just would like it to be known. I would like it to go into the history books and I would like...do you know, the younger generation of today including my own grandchildren to know that that’s the way it was long ago. It wasn’t the perpetrator that went in, that got into trouble, it was the victim. You know, you’d have had to have been a girl, like, for that to happen." (Link to http://jfmresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/JFMR-report-to-CAT-for-the-session-2017-Main-Report.pdf ) We must hold the Taoiseach to what he told the Pope last weekend, and demand action, not just brave words. As Leo Varadkar said on Saturday: "the failures of both Church and State and wider society created a bitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering. ...It is a history of sorrow and shame. ...Wounds are still open and there is much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors." DCC Councillors will shortly vote on the following motion: “Following the repeated recommendations of the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) that the Irish State should undertake a thorough and impartial investigation into ill-treatment of girls and women at the Magdalene Laundries, promote greater access to archival information regarding the Magdalene Laundries and fully implement the outstanding recommendations of Mr Justice Quirke, including services for survivors and memorialisation, the elected members of Dublin City Council (DCC) consider it entirely inappropriate that DCC is currently offering the Magdalene Laundry site at Sean McDermott Street for sale to private developers. The elected members of DCC are also concerned that, despite it being the first recommendation of Mr Justice Ryan's Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, a memorial to those abused in residential schools has never been created. We hereby request a halt to the sale of the Magdalene Laundry site at Sean McDermott Street. We welcome the creation of the Lord Mayor's Commission and look forward to receiving its recommendations regarding the appropriate use of the site.”

Only approximately 7% of our children receive truly integrated education, this is a shamefully low % considering the quantity of research highlighting the importance of integrated education in securing a peaceful future for Northern Ireland. The IEF Young People's Voices Report showed that 'more than 80% of 'the young people' questioned agree that an education system bringing children of all faiths and none together in the same schools would be an important step in combating sectarianism' and yet only a handful of children and young people are given the opportunity to attend integrated schools. Even the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (in 2016) highlighted concerns that “in Northern Ireland segregation of schools by religion persists” and goes on to recommend “the State party… in Northern Ireland actively promote a fully integrated education system." There has been amazing work done by parents and voluntary organisations in setting up the many integrated schools that we currently have here but I would like to see much more being done to make Integrated Education the norm in Northern Ireland. Why now? The Department of Education has a legal duty to “encourage and facilitate the development of integrated education”. This is underlined in the Good Friday Agreement of 1998; however, the Deptartment of Education has never initiated any integrated schools. Our education budget is at breaking point. Integrated schools serve all sections of Northern Ireland society so they not only make sense from a peace perspective but make sense economically. Taxpayers are paying extra for a divided system! This was a mistake for NI and we should call a stop on it now. Please sign this petition asking that Integrated Schools should take precedence when any new school is proposed

Independent experts have warned this reckless dumping of radioactive mud into coastal waters could result in contamination spreading via the sea. [1] Heavily contaminated waste from Sellafield has washed up on seashores in dangerous concentrations - if this dumping isn't stopped, the same could happen again. Big business is trying to push this through - without a full environmental impact study, we have no assurance this toxic waste won't wind up on Irish shores. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/oct/14/hinkley-point-radioactive-mud-dumped-cardiff-severn-estuary

Combined Assad Regime/Russian attacks on Eastern Ghouta: -> On November 27th 2017, the Syrian Network for Human Rights released a report [1] detailing the horrific increase in military assaults on Eastern Ghouta, a region with approximately 400,000 people enduring years of siege at the hands of the Syrian regime and allied forces [2]. 147 civilians including 37 children had been killed in two weeks of attacks. The report stresses “that the Syrian and Russian regimes have, beyond any doubt, violated Security Council Resolutions 2139 and 2254 which both state that indiscriminate attacks must be halted. Also, The Syrian and Russian regimes have violated Article 8 of Rome Statute through the act of willful killing which constitutes war crimes.” The report adds that: “the bombardment has targeted defenseless civilians. Therefore, Syrian and Russian forces have violated the rules of the international human rights law which guarantee the right to life. Additionally, these violations were perpetrated in a non-international armed conflict which amount to a war crime where all elements were fulfilled.” Russia blocking apprehension of perpetrators of Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapons massacre: -> The U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 2235 (2015) on 7 August 2015, condemning “any use of any toxic chemical, such as chlorine, as a weapon in the Syrian Arab Republic”, and expressing determination to identify and hold accountable those responsible for such acts. This saw the establishment of the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) between the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to identify and hold accountable those responsible for such acts.[3] On November 17th 2016 the Security Council renewed the mandate of the JIM. However, subsequent to the infamous Khan Sheikhoun chemical weapon attack in April 2017, a UN investigation panel had been able to establish definitively that regime forces had carried out that chemical weapons attack[4]. As a result of that finding, Russia used its veto at the U.N. Security Council twice - on November 16th and 17th, 2017 - to prevent the renewal of the JIM’s mandate, making it impossible for all intents and purposes the task of holding to account those responsible for the attack. [5] In the interests of Syrian civilians, it is of course necessary to engage with Russia in order to eventually achieve peace for Syria. As Frederic Hof - writing for the Atlantic Council [6] - has pointed out however, this should not be interpreted as cooperation with them. In relation to the assault on Eastern Ghouta, it is fitting to end our petition with this quote from a resident of Eastern Ghouta when interviewed on Newsnight on November 27th, 2017: “There are no deadly weapons that we haven't been targetted with. You who are listening to me. What more are you waiting for? Our extermination?” [7] 1: http://sn4hr.org/wp-content/pdf/english/The_bombing_and_siege_of_the_eastern_Ghouta_cancels_the_next_round_of_Geneva_en.pdf 2: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/siege-eastern-ghouta-blot-world-conscience-171120191755424.html 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPCW-UN_Joint_Investigative_Mechanism 4: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/26/world/middleeast/syria-chemical-khan-shekhoun.html?action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article 5: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/18/syria-chemical-attacks-haley-russia-shameful-veto-un-inquiry 6: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/cooperate-with-russia 7: See video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEHM8krVMr4&list=PLJxnQXiytA_Qc0B57aViue2G3DPet1Z0L#action=share

We are close neighbours and need to find a solution that holds the peace process and the good relationships that have been so hard won. Brexit is going to hurt us all - and as political leaders you need to take responsibility for the avoiding making the situation worse than it needs to be,

As per the Irish Times article on November 29th by Kitty Holland, homelessness among single adults is up 44% in the Midlands in the year since October 2016 and this shelter, having already cut its staffing is now facing closure (1). The assertion by the Department of Housing that "the needs of regions are kept under review on an ongoing basis" and "it will help to meet the costs faced by housing bodies." is clearly not of any value here. This shelter which also serves the needs of people in Laois, Longford and Offaly needs to be kept open and Midlands Simon has to be given concrete assurances that it will receive adequate funding as a matter of urgency. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/sole-westmeath-homeless-shelter-likely-to-close-over-funding-1.3308697

7 people have died on the streets of Dublin in the past 12 weeks. In our towns and cities there are thousands of people facing the winter without a roof over their heads - sleeping in cars, in tents, doorways, under bushes. Emergency accommodation is needed for everyone and must be made a priority this winter.

It is obvious that the vote of the Irish student is very powerful, with over 20,000 students registering to vote in the Marriage Equality referendum in 2015, making it the largest turnout in twenty years since the divorce referendum in 1995. This is why the referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment must not take place in June or later, when students go abroad to work or travel. Over 18,000 students have registered to vote so far. More will register with an RFA2 form, to be a part of the supplementary register (which requires a Garda witness). Students have been politicised by Ireland’s restrictive laws, and are the agents of change. The 18,000+ votes count in this fight for bodily autonomy. And this is why the referendum must be in May of 2018.

The planning committee have a duty to represent ratepayers and seek to establish if these are unlawful decisions. These decisions may be unlawful if there has been no study of the combined health impacts on the people living in the area. Downwind, and in the six miles between these two developments, lie the homes of tens of thousands of people, as well as recreational water bodies, holiday sites and the shores of Belfast Lough. The human cost of poor air quality is huge causing the deaths of more people per year, in Northern Ireland, than passive smoking or road accidents combined and costing the NHS over £20 billion per year. (1) At a time when the World Health Organisation are saying that the greater Belfast area air already exceeds safe levels by 20% we deserve a cumulative health impact study before any further work proceeds. (2) Read more on FB @Stop the Newtownabbey Pig Factory & Stop Hightown Waste Incinerator 1. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-air-pollution-levels-among-the-worst-in-uk-35636923.html 2. http://breathelife2030.org/ 3 https://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2017/11/13/air-quality-breaches-stops-development-which-threatened-to-exacerbate-them/

We do not want to minimise the damage Brexit will cause to our communities and to the whole of Northern Ireland. We are deeply worried about destabilising our peace process. We need to save our tourism and farming industries.

Anong many reasons why the residents object are: - The present traffic problem is not due to the roundabout itself, but the backed-up traffic towards town on the Headford Road. - Redesigning the junction does not address this issue at all - €1.2million will be spent - Additional lanes added to four arms of the junction, yet the capacity increase wil be only 15% - Public (and private) green space will be taken - Mature trees felled - Compulsory Purchase will take years to complete - Commercial interests in the area damaged - All local residents will be hugely inconvenienced and in the case of those in the immediate vicinity totally isolated - There will be nine sets of lights in the short stretch from Ballinfoile church to the Courthouse.