Every year in Ireland 200,000 mink are caged, mistreated, gassed and skinned to service the fashion industry. Please sign this petition to show your support for the Solidarity Bill to ban this cruel and unnecessary practice. The Prohibition of Fur Farming Bill 2018 was introduced to the Dail on October 2nd 2018 by Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger. Sadly the Minister failed to attend the presentation. Mink are solitary, undomesticated animals terrified of humans (for good reason). They are semi aquatic and certainly do not choose to live their short lives in wire cages. Please sign our petition to show the minister that the people of Ireland are compassionate and do not support this unnecessary cruelty. Image (c) Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals

There is a housing crisis in Dublin and across the country and communities need affordable homes. Construction should have begun in 2017 but still nothing has happened. 3500 new homes could be built there but the City is still waiting. Aproposed development on the old IGB site will be a game changer for this area and the Ministers lack of decisive action by him and his Department on this ,alter may lead to this development going ahead without the promised 900 social and affordable homes. Please do the right thing and bring affordable homes to Dublin and Ringsend.

25 orangutans die everyday due to palm oil production. Palm oil cultivation is responsible for 10% of the world's CO2 emission, habitat destruction for some of the world's critically endangered species and water pollution on some of the world's poorest countries. It has also resulted in land grand and exploitation of some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable communities.

The Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018 seeks to prohibit the import and sale of goods, services and natural resources originating in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Such settlements have been condemned as illegal by the UN, EU, the International Court of Justice and under Irish law. They result in human rights violations. There was a standing ovation in the Seanad when the Bill passed a historic stage vote in July. Since then there has been an overwhelming positive response from the Palestinian people, and a large section of the international community. The Bill returns to the Seanad for the next stage on 28th November 2018. The Bill has however raised criticism from Israel, and Fine Gael are backing down on the advise of the Attorney General. The EU has expressed concern over " the EU’s competence on trade matters”. Given Fianna Fail's strong record on the issue we beseech the party to be resolute supporting this Bill, reasserting Ireland's commitment to justice, peace, and the rule of law. It is important that Ireland leads the way at a time when many of these values are under threat around the world. Fianna Fail may hold the numbers to either make or break this Bill becoming ground-breaking legislation to tackle the issue of illegal Israeli settlements, which may even constitute war crimes under the Geneva conventions. Will the party continue its support?

Educational researchers agree that our current mainstream school system does not align with meeting the needs of children. We can no longer judge children's abilities in standardized testing, which ignores their creativity as well as talents and often makes them feel isolated, stupid and worthless. Especially children with additional needs are not nourished in the long outdated school system. In most European countries progressive schools such as Montessori, Sudbury, Homeschools and Waldorf Schools have long been a welcoming space for children to flourish, to gain self confidence and to become independent and happy citizens. Unfortunately these schools in Ireland depend fully on fundraising and fees alone because they do not receive a single cent from the Irish government. Teachers often partially work for free, because they believe in the significance of these educational establishments, and more importantly in the children's right to self-direct their learning, no matter of their financial background. It is time to allow parents and children to choose how their personalities will develop healthily, without a religious indoctrination, by letting them learn in an alternative non-denominational school. Please add your name to this petition to collectively ask our new Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, to spread the allocated funds for education more fairly by including alternative schools such as Montessori, Sudbury or Steiner, as well as homeschooling in the state funding, so that no child has to pay fees in order to grow there. With good hopes for the future, Carolin, a former teacher

Rents in Ireland are at an all-time high, with the national average standing at €1,334 a month. Yet even these staggering figures don’t tell the whole story, because many tenants are being charged additional upfront fees by letting agents and extortionate deposits equal to two or three times the monthly rent. This is a brutal and exploitative way of screening renters with the result that low-income workers and social welfare recipients are effectively locked out of the market. Scotland successfully banned letting agent fees in 2012 and England and Wales are set to do the same early next year, and also introduce a cap on deposits. The Dublin Tenants’ Association is demanding the same from our Government. Sign the petition to show your support!

This would provide free and safe drinking water to the public. It would be an enhancement to our public amenities. It would cut down on single use plastic bottles and encourage a culture of re-use.

Those begging for change on the streets will now have an easier way of earning cash. By picking up litter ! Let's clean the streets of Limerick .Be a part of our campaign. Countries in mainland Europe have already introduced this kind of infrastructure. Let's pioneer it for Ireland Lets sustain our development through recycling.

The average cost of seeing a GP in Ireland now is €60 - and the cost can be as high as €80 in cities like Dublin. People are ignoring illness and not accessing care due to the cost of seeing a GP. This is not acceptable in a country like Ireland - whilst GP care is free in other comparable countries like Britain, Canada and Germany - or costs as little as €7.50 in other EU countries like France. It doesn't make economic sense either - illness costs the Irish economy hundreds of millions a year, and delayed diagnoses mean poorer outcomes and more intensive treatments for patients. We can stop this together - which is why the Minister for Health must move immediately to make GP care free for all.

Monaghan County Council could be fined because it hasn’t spent any Government funding on traveller accommodation. It’s one of 9 local authorities not to drawn down any funding allocated for it to provide the accommodation, Longford and Westmeath are also included. Over €1.2 million in funding earmarked for the provision of the accommodation has gone unspent.

Health reasons

not only is this going to lead to an unprecedented slaughter of one of our natural predatory fish species ,it will also lead to an environmental imbalance in the waters eco systems - pike feed mainly on sick ,dying and distressed fish - this helps keep the waters delicate ecosystem in check - in short it is natures way of balancing the books ,the unnecessary and indiscriminate killing of pike without restriction to any size ,weight or number will lead to an imbalance . pike are not only predatory fish but also cannibalistic in as such as they will feed on their own species -- this helps keep down the number of smaller 'jack ' pike in any water - killing and removing larger pike will lead to an explosion af smaller jack pike , these smaller jack's can only eat fish that are again smaller than themselves - so will feed on younger fish and fry of other species - leading to a reduction in the numbers of those species - jack pike are far more likely to devour more 'prey' in one day than a larger -older pike would -so the more jacks a water holds -the more small fish and fry that get eaten , conservation wise the decision to allow the unlimited killing of pike across the western fisheries region is akin to shooting ones self in the foot - a pointless and painful exercise . in addition to the environmental aspect of this 'cull ' there are also other aspects that must be considered - ireland rely's on the tourist industry , a large part of ireland's tourism is t in the angling and sport fishing sector - over 1 million anglers per year come to fish irish water - that number of anglers bring many benefits - businesses such as tackle and bait suppliers , b&b's ,guest houses , holiday homes ,hotels ,bars ,pubs, cafe's restaurants, boat hire companies ,petrol stations ,camping sites all gain from anglers visiting these shores - in the to late 1980s ireland attracted almost as many anglers as there were residents -some 3 million per year - those numbers have declined because of issues with water quality ,access to rivers ,lakes and fisheries , poor water management and maintenance - but over the last 5-6 years tourist numbers have been on an upward trend and are now back over the 1 million mark for the first time in a decade . many of those anglers come here because of the excellent pike fishing - especially the uk, french ,german and dutch anglers - a great many of those anglers are so disgusted by this backwards step to allow the unregulated slaughter of predatory species especially pike that they are considering removing ireland from the list of countries to visit - the knock on effect to the tourism industry and other small local businesses would be devastating to say the least - imagine losing at least 1 quarter of your prospective business !! therefore im asking people -not just anglers but also those interested in the conservation and natural resources of this country to sign this petition and try to get this disgraceful decision reversed . thank you