Independent childcare providers across Ireland face unfairly high levels of commercial rates on their business properties. Early Education and Childcare (EEC) is not the same—and cannot be treated the same—as other commercial enterprises. In many cases, independent EEC providers are administering and delivering publicly funded services, provided for under public sector schemes, but do not benefit from public sector tax rating. A level playing field where all EEC providers are exempt would ultimately benefit the State and the wider economy. The removal of commercial rates would enable these businesses to remain financially viable and provide an essential, quality service to children and their parents. Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone has recently called for cuts to rates for childcare facilities. Furthermore, we note the decision by the Welsh and Scottish Governments to exempt nurseries and crèches from commercial business rates in their respective countries. Seas Suas wholeheartedly supports these actions and now petitions the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe to follow suit here in Ireland. For us to make a difference, we need your voice in support. Help us alleviate the immense pressures on Ireland’s childcare system by signing our petition to Minister Donohoe and Minister Zappone, urging them to scrap commercial rates on EEC facilities in Budget 2019.

We are in a housing crisis. Many people living with disabilities are forced to share accommodation. Even if they share with strangers people living with disabilities are not eligible for the Household Benefits or Fuel Allowance Package. So people who depend on electricity for medical equipment are excluded because they share accommodation. It makes no sense and feels discriminatory. Allow people living with disabilities eligibility for €35 a month for electricity and for the fuel allowance for the winter. People living with disabilities didn't chose this life and deserve not to be punished for it.

Because the country has to look after workers not push us aside. It's retail staff in most companies and bar staff what have to do more then what is normal from a local shop. Sign this and make the government do what our hard earned taxes are paying for.

Is most of your income going on rent? Is it a struggle to have any money left over for a social life, a holiday in this lifetime, or to save anything after you've made rent? There is now a whole generation of people for whom security, having a home of their own or starting a family is starting to seem more and more like a pipe dream. Landlords have been taking advantage of the housing crisis to push up rent, with the average one bedroom apartment now at a shocking €1,459 per month in Dublin; €926 in Cork City; €848 in Galway City; €791 in Limerick City and €663 in Waterford City. This is appalling and must be stopped. Introduce real rent controls now!

I think that if you can learn Russian, Ancient Greek and Latin for your Leaving Cert then you should be able to learn a language that people born here speak as their first language. I also think that it would encourage students to learn Sign Language, even if it is just a non-curricular language that has to be studied outside of school. If more hearing people could speak sign language, the deaf community wouldn't be so isolated in society.

Diabetes is a disease that currently affects 425 million people worldwide - and HALF do not even know they have the disease, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). There are different types of Diabetes, but the main two are Type 2 (95%) and Type 1 Diabetes (5%). (You can read up on the difference between the two here: https://www.webmd.com/diabetes/guide/types-of-diabetes ) Early diagnosis can be accomplished through relatively inexpensive testing of blood sugar - so why are both children and adults worldwide still dying of Diabetic Ketoacidosis? (Diabetic Ketoacidosis is a life threatening complication of Diabetes that occurs when your body produces high levels of blood acids called ketones. The condition develops when your body can't produce enough insulin, and can result in swelling of the brain, coma, and death. Read more here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetic-ketoacidosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20371551 ) If medical professionals administered a simple finger prick as standard at every and any medical appointment, early detection could prevent these deaths. Routine Blood Glucose Checks should be as common as taking a patient's temperature or blood pressure, especially since half of all Diabetics remain undiagnosed and Diabetes in general is still rising globally (Estimated 620 million people by 2040).

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) Council approved rules that will mean that 248 women- in their late 50's, with an average 35 years of experience working as qualified professionals, will lose their livelihoods. The new rules would restrict a qualified Pharmaceutical Assistant (PA) to working ONE HOUR PER DAY in the absence of a pharmacist, rendering the qualification worthless and the job position economically unsustainable. If the new rules are signed into law by the Minister for Health, PA's will no longer be able to provide professional cover for pharmacists’ day off. “It is not possible to get locum cover so if the PA can’t cover I may have to remain closed some Saturdays…It’s fairly disastrous for pharmacy in Ireland”, a pharmacist explains in research carried out to assess the impact of the rules on pharmacy services. PA's have worked on average 18 years in their present pharmacies and know their customers very well. Continuity of care is paramount to patients' health and safety. This is something that PA's offer but the PSI have totally disregarded and ignored this crucial cornerstone. PA's like Sarah explain how “I will be out of a job. I am only 60 and state pension only available at 67…I have two children in college…it will be a financial disaster…I need my work and my money “, Marie spoke of how “I still have a mortgage so am worried about keeping my family home as I am a widow with a disabled adult living with me” NO consideration or provision for compensation has been made by the PSI, in drafting these rules.

The National Transport Authority are responsible for expanding the Cork 'Coke Bikes' scheme. The scheme has been a huge success but it needs to be expanded to cover more of the city! Cork needs to send a clear message to Dublin to secure funding for this.

This is important as my home is currently under threat and i have two elderly parents living with me. I fell in to arrears and tried to engage with Ulster Bank however they threw me to the wolves. I am a tax payer, always have been and work hard to pay my debts and bills like anyone else. I live with the fear and shame of this everyday and feel a revolution is needed in this country for the government to sit up and take notice of what the irish people want.

The catholic church to date owes the state 1.3 billion and we still have survivors waiting on redress some of which have died waiting. The state cannot legally seize church assets because of this article in the constitution. Quite a number of our state funded schools an hospitals are owned by religious orders. The catholic church are not handing them over. The only option at present is for the state to compulsory purchase. This means the state would pay the church for property which the state should have always been in ownership of in the first place.

Recently Sean mc Dermot street Magdalene laundry, Dublin, was protected from being sold to a hotel because it was the only institution within state ownership. All Magdalene laundries currently named in the mcayleese report should be protected and that should have already been the plan, just like the graves that lay on some of these sites. But instead, Sunday wells, cork Magdalene laundry had been sold by the church and they plan to build housing on it. The same is currently happening to st Vincent’s Magdalene laundry, cork. It was rumoured to be given to another housing development company. The church who own many of the buildings of these institutions, although clearly just as responsible for the treatment of these women had contributed nothing to the scheme for this women that paid out for just their wages (which was capped at 10 years by the government meaning those who worked longer gets the same as someone who worked there less time) and a tip of a medical card. The government foot the whole bill, rather than a 50/50 deal like what was made for the Ryan report (which they still haven’t completed paying) their assets should have already been stripped from them to compensate these women and children but now the church they are acting quick and selling the laundries, for profit or to cover up further. These places shouldn’t be touched until a full investigation happens and a small gesture to the survivors & their families would be to give these places back to the community. The mcayleese didn’t even hit the tip of the iceberg in regards to the laundries, nor did it address all the crimes in relation to the laundries, they took so much but refuse to give so little back. The laundries still standing should be places of historic importance and not built upon to cover their shame or for what ever other reason. They shouldn’t have been allowed to be sold In the first place! St Vincent’s Magdalene laundry, (now named st Vincent’s Centre for those with “intellectual disabilities”) it is a fully functioning building, in fantastic condition and only recently they built and new Covent for the nuns on the land, why would you get rid of something that is so Newley built and in good condition? Although the last laundry closed in 1996, they kept the women on the same land in st Vincent’s, in the same dorms, just closed down the laundry part and it was run by the same people the sisters of charity right up to 2017, then when standards fell so low HSE took over and had a month to up standards, they failed the centre which was now named a centre for “intellectual disabilities” and failed the Magdalene women still in their care in that centre, those who was made to remain in the sisters of charity’s care even after the church refused to accept any responsibility to the Magdalene women’s scheme. The tax payer foot the whole bill for the women’s wages and medical card as the church felt they did nothing wrong regardless of the extensive evidence. We now need to protect all Magdalene laundries sites still standing named in the Mcayleese report. My nan died in st Vincent’s Magdalene laundry after they neglected her to death which we have the prove regarding, a doctor recommended a hysterectomy but they left her for over a decade due to the churches believes regarding being sterilised, during that time she developed cancer to the womb and bled to death, they dumped her in a mass grave where 72 women lay. Since 2013 we have been trying to exhume my nan from the mass grave after the apology was just issued to the living working residences (not even minutes was issued for the dead women) the children residents and the children of these women who died due to proven neglect and put into a mass grave wasn’t acknowledged and my mum sat in the Dàil the night they issued it heart broken for years she had been fighting to see her mothers, hers and her sisters form of justice in regards to the laundries and the fight continues. My mums sister was in sunday wells, when she left the laundry she left to Liverpool, she came back to cork but to try visit her mother who was in another Magdalene laundry, st Vincent’s, they left her outside and she never got to see her mum that day, she flew back to Liverpool and that coming Christmas Day & she committed suicide, when she was found she was found with the address of her mothers laundry on her, the authorities called the laundry her mother was in to inform her regarding what happend My nan and her children was all separated and taken due to prejudice against unmarried women but what stands out clearly in my mothers and nans reports, is that it wasn’t just due to one that prejudice of being unmarried but two, the prejudice towards those who was itinerant (irish Travellers) although reports stated my nan was a good mum and all the children was “well nourished” no stated bruises but what they did state and care for is regarding her living circumstances and being of “no fixed adobe” of the “itinerant stock” and in the 1960s a commission took place stating that very itinerant children will be taken from their families and institutionalised. Simply put, they was attempting to socially cleansing the community by using institutions and breaking up families. After the exclusive apology from the state was issued in 2013, are family requested right to removal and have been ignored by those who own the land, the sister of charity. We cannot exhume my nan without their permission, (which should be a right to survivors like my mum they do so for people just moving house) after the order first ignored us in 2013 we applied to the council and in their response in 2014, they stated although we stated we already asked the orders permission, we need their permission before taking it any further as they are owner of the site. Everyone that signs this petition, it’s so greatly appreciated, thank you all.

The Constitution discriminates directly against the non-religious as they are effectively barred from the Presidency, the Council of State and the bench unless they make a declaration which is manifestly contrary to their beliefs and their conscience. As it is now clear that there will be a presidential election this year, there is no better time to act to remove these out-dated and discriminatory requirements. By holding a referendum on this issue on the same day as the presidential election and blasphemy referendum, the Government has the opportunity to deal with this matter expeditiously and to save a large amount of taxpayers' money. We therefore urge the Minister to seek Cabinet approval without delay so that a General Scheme can be prepared in time for 26th October.