The Citizens' Assembly on Drugs Use has the potential to bring justice-based reform to the archaic and abusive Irish drugs policy. However, figures within the HSE, Department of Health and the Irish Government are pushing for a new system which will see all those caught with small personal amounts of cannabis coerced into 'brief' SAOR medical interventions in order to avoid criminal sanctions. This policy will have massive consequences on human rights, bodily autonomy and basic dignity. It will also have disproportionate impact on: • Marginalised communities and people. • Medical cannabis users and patients. • Those in need of addiction treatment. The proposed system will clog up addiction treatment services, filling it with people who use cannabis and will result in people who need genuine help waiting longer. What we really need is a harm-reduction based approach to cannabis which focuses on safe consumption and cultivation, similar to what has been done in Malta with their cannabis social club model.

The abuse uncovered by RTÉ Investigates at Shannonside Foods' horse abattoir in Kildare has shocked us all. Footage captured by RTÉ has shown horses being hit, punched, whipped and struck with plastic piping.  Together, we are calling on the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to shut down this abattoir with immediate effect. If those who own the abattoir feel it's OK to treat animals like this, they shouldn't be allowed anywhere near them.  Please sign and share our petition today, and help us get this abattoir shut down.

The Munster Rugby Supporters Club Choir has been a regular fixture at matches for more than a decade, but they're now disbanding after Munster Rugby said there's appetite for "new match day entertainment on the pitch". We call on Munster Rugby to reverse this decision and to bring back the choir. 

*WARNING* Possible wake up call ahead, be prepared to grab the wheel! To all the parents like myself on all the WhatsApp groups, checking the time of GAA training for tomorrow... Recently driving home from work I felt I was nodding off a bit, a product of this modern world, too much on, too much running around, too much technology coming at me, I'm exhausted to be honest! When I got home and after doing the domestic dance of who's making dinner that night, I fell in front of what was my "babysitter" growing up - the TV. At the same time my kids are spread out all over the house in front of their modern "babysitter" - the mobile phone. Why did I get them these devices? Because you got them for your kids, and you got them because I got them for my kids, peer pressure at its worst! The internet is an amazing tool, the reason you are reading this message, but we all know there is the dark side that we don't like to think about, is it a case of modern life has us so tired that we are asleep at the wheel or are we just turning a blind eye? The internet is like a car, difficult to live without one, safe and practical in the hands of an adult, but give a car to a 12-16 year old and it's possibly a form of abuse! Dangerous to the child and dangerous to those around that child! The state has a dark history of child abuse, something you would think would not happen again in our modern society, that we would not let it happen on our watch, however abuse can come in many subtle forms! Are we all guilty of staying quiet like all those cases years ago, choosing the easier path!? The media is awash with the side effects of these devices - social media anxiety, mental health issues, shore attention span, behavioural issues, desensitization to violence, social disruption, sleeping disorders, eating disorders, underage sex, teenage pregnancies, underage sex crimes - the list goes on, it’s some punishment on our kids and on our communities just so they can be "connected" and watch a few dance videos! Even with something as trivial as dance videos you start to realise the algorithms are pushing more and more sexualized content towards you! The sexualization of our kids at such a young age and the normalization of that fact is a serious modern-day issue. "You need to build a relationship with your kids, educate your kids" - this is what most internet guides tell parents. Good advice but it only addresses "pull" technology i.e. educate your kids not to go looking for the darker side of the internet. The problem is exacerbated now by "push" technology such as Snapchat where the darker side comes looking for you! Everything is not how it seems when it comes to Snapchat, on one side there is what appears to be a harmless app where kids can swap funny photos etc. On the other side it’s an unregulated, unfiltered, hidden, dark network, where kids can make and receive any kind of content they like, and I mean ANYTHING! Sure, wasn't there always a playboy magazine knocking around back in the day I hear you say, but the playboy magazine didn't contain graphical content of underage kids, and wasn't interactive, asking you to create content back! If you said 20 years ago that we're going to create a device and put it into each child's pocket and one thing it will enable is for kids to send naked pictures and videos of themselves to each other, then people would have thought you were crazy! Snapchat knows this but are too busy making millions, it will argue they are only supplying the pipes, the kids are the ones pushing the toxic water through. It's the gun manufacture debate, they only make the guns, you're the one pulling the trigger. Just like web email has filters, Snapchat could implement filters, they choose not to, they could even put AI software in place that says “we know that's you, cop yourself on”! As a 16-year-old, I would have been all over Snapchat, it has the thrill of a new relationship, aspects of gaming (fishing for better rewards) as well as the titillation! The content circulating on Snapchat can trigger kids to have an interest in porn, they then go looking for stronger content in other places on the internet. There's also a known sextortion scam circulating on Snapchat which has led to numerous shocking suicides! People say you can't change Society, but Society is the people, Society is us, we can change! Why did we get the phones in the first place? Society put peer pressure on us to get them, so let’s put peer pressure back on Society to change, then Society can go full circle and remove the phones! I believe most parents deep down know we've made a mistake with access to these phones at too early an age. Forget all the serious issues above, even just to get rid of the domestic arguments around screen time would make them worth removing! This is the cigarettes of our time causing the cancer in our Society, I truly believe in 10 years’ time people will look back and say, “what the hell were we thinking?!” Our government knows they are awash with social and underage issues but are they asleep at the wheel or is it a case of too little too late? Are they willing to take on the phone manufacturers?! The ask here is that you put your name to this petition asking for a public vote on smart phones. I believe if the vote was put to the public, the public would do the right thing! If you want to get involved in our movement, please join our Smartphone Free Childhood Ireland WhatsApp Group Invite And/or please take this quick poll (only two questions - do you believe there should be a minimum age and if so, what age?) https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8PJK9SH Thanks for reading, let's keep our kids safe out there! Sound Bytes Sam References: Jonathan Haidt on the Mental-Health Crisis and Smartphones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6NfPHrVilc The Anxious Generation Evidence  https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence

This is important because we have recently recognised Palestine as a state, and should accommodate them with an embassy.

It's been revealed that the HSE has taken in more than €3.5 million in parking charges from Galway University Hospital and Portiuncula over the past four years. [1] It's disgraceful that people are paying such high costs for parking at a hospital. Those who are being treated for cancer or other long-term conditions bear the biggest burden of hospital parking charges – this is disgraceful and must change. Together, we call on the HSE to scrap parking charges for Galway University Hospital for patients with immediate effect so that people who are seeking healthcare can do so with dignity. [1] https://connachttribune.ie/hospitals-e3-5-million-profit-from-patient-parking-613/

Northern Ireland, particularly the Sperrins, is being overwhelmed by wind farms, with insufficient consideration of their drawbacks. The Sperrin region, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), faces the imminent threat of becoming a dumping ground for large, seemingly eco-friendly energy projects. We believe there is currently an unsustainable over-reliance on wind energy development as the primary means to meet renewable energy targets. This over-dependence on wind energy endangers our overall energy security, further diminishes our already shrinking biodiversity and natural heritage, negatively affects community well-being and health, and eliminates fair opportunities and benefits for everyone in our transition to a greener, more sustainable future.

everyone deserves a safe place to call home

It is essential given the examples worldwide including the likes of Thames Water in England that privatisation of water services cannot happen in Ireland. This can only be guaranteed through referendum

Please get behind this campaign to keep the horticulture course open in West Cork Campus Skibbereen. This course provides people with opportunitites to train and work in this area in the west cork area. Growing food, increasing biodiversity and ecology in something we need to promote. Please sign this petition to keep the course open, for those that are already enrolled on it and prospective students who wish to study this important and sustainably driven subject. Closing this course will deny people who genuinley want to study and work in the area of Horticulture in West Cork. It does not make any sense! This is a sustainable and practical career choice for those living in West Cork and should be retained. We call on the Cork ETB (Education Training Board) and all our local representatives to keep this course open. 

High energy users putting pressure on renewables.

The Newpark Academy of Music has been providing musical experience and education for neigh on 45yrs.  Young and old have stepped across its doors to plunge into a world of nuanced musical expression. Newpark - though it's many guises of individual classical and jazz lessons, choirs, orchestra, quartets - has provided a locus of community involvement for its students and their families. The mental health benefits accued from being involved with musical expression is well documented. In a post covid era where many of us are struggling to move our children and ourselves away from screen based activites, the loss of Newpark Academy of Music is the loss of something indefinable and vitally important to the students who have crossed its threshold.  Music feeds our soul.  To have a school providing high quality teaching in the suburbs, indeed on the doorstep of many students homes is an exceptional resource, one to be cherished and protected. The loss of Newpark Academy of Music to the area of Blackrock and Stillorgan will be enormous. This resource is too important to let slip away.