Recent high-profile assaults on referees have shown us that our national sports have a problem. Referees will not continue to turn up to our matches if they are not treated with respect and fair play. That's why we're calling for a national strategy to tackle this problem by making it clear that people who behave aggressively or inappropriately towards referees have no place in our games.

At a time when we need to be pulling out all the stops to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent the worst climate change scenarios, it is very misleading and confusing to audiences to hear people with climate denier agendas espousing policies that will instead dig us deeper into the climate crisis. The Chairman of companies Clontarf Energy Plc and Petrel Resources, Mr David Horgan, is an example. Between them, these two companies are involved in oil and gas exploration in Ireland, Iraq, Ghana and Chad. Mr Horgan has signed the world "There is no Climate Emergency" declaration (part of a project by Clintel - a lobby group funded by two Dutch millionaires) yet on 27th August he was on Newstalk's Anton Savage show to discuss "Tackling the Energy Crisis & Budget 2023 Look Ahead". In fact, he is regularly given spots on RTE, Newstalk, Today FM and Radio Nova to espouse views which no doubt stand to improve the market for fossil fuels which his companies profit from. Photo credit: Fringer Cat @nittygritty_photo

Justice for those long neglected by the state

Schools open this week but thousands of students have been left stranded - because the Dept of Education has failed to organise enough buses. Norma Foley is spinning a story that this is a new problem - but we all know that every year there are never enough school bus places for everyone who needs them. Parents are scrambling to find ways to get their children to school on time. Many will be forced to take time off work, pay for taxis, juggle already stressful days. We need to make sure school children can get to school.

This group of students were led to believe that their DBS courses would receive CORU accreditation. Many have taken out loans, given up jobs, did hundreds of hours of unpaid work, spent long hours writing assignments etc. in the belief that they would get a qualification that would enable them to work as Registered Social Care Workers. DBS's course didn't make the grade and the students are the ones who are made to suffer. No offer of refunds or any solutions from DBS. This is a major injustice.

The HSE have received a recommendation to restrict the option of homebirth, under the HSE Home Birth Scheme, to women giving birth no further than 30 minutes from a maternity hospital. This is not backed by any research concluding that women are at a greater risk outside this parameter. Women should be guaranteed the right to choose their place of birth. Placing a restriction on homebirth, by limiting its availability to those who live less than 30 minutes from a maternity hospital, denies more than 20% of expectant mothers the right to this choice. This percentage is also a conservative figure and could actually be much higher. The current application form for the HSE homebirth service outlines the procedure for safe and timely transfer to hospital, if required, making special reference to women in 'remote' areas. These guidelines are backed by evidence based studies and so, no change should be made to these guidelines, which would result in the violation of a woman's right to choice, without extensive research. It is also important to note that women availing of the home birth scheme must meet a strict set of criteria and only women who are deemed low risk, by an obstetrician, can avail of this service. It is feared that by limiting the option of homebirth to a large number of expectant mothers, there will be an increase in the number of "free-births" (births without a professional midwife present). Furthermore, homebirth in Ireland is also provided by Private Midwives Ireland, as well as the HSE. If the provision of a public homebirth scheme continues to be restricted, this means that it will be families on lower incomes - those without private health care or the means to pay a private midwife - that will be affected by these restrictions. Lastly, the publishing of these recommendations perpetuate the fear surrounding birth in our society, leading to connotations that birth is something that consistently leads to medical emergencies, rather than something that is a physiologically natural process, without the need for medical intervention, for the majority of women. Women deserve the right to choose the kind of birth they want. Women need to be given the autonomy and trust to make this choice based on accurate and evidence based information. We also need to have confidence in our community midwives, the professionals who, with their extensive training and experience, know exactly how to keep a woman safe during homebirth.

The climate crisis is accelerating rapidly with droughts, wild fires, heat waves and flooding appearing in the news more and more frequently. It is crystal clear that action on the climate crisis is extremely urgent. Ireland has passed into law a climate bill that includes the target of a 51% reduction in emissions by 2030 which will be outlined in the Carbon Budgets. In order to achieve this ambitious target massive changes to the economy and how the country functions will be necessary. The Irish public is woefully under-prepared for the transition which will need to take place. In the past the Irish Government has run campaigns to build awareness among Irish citizens in matters of public safety such as the covid-19 campaign ( gov.ie - COVID-19 (Coronavirus) (www.gov.ie) and the road safety campaign ( Ireland’s Government Road Safety Strategy 2021 - 2030 (rsa.ie). Climate change is a matter that will impact the safety of all Irish Citizens. A public awareness campaign on the climate crisis is desperately needed. At a minimum the climate awareness campaign should include the following topics. • The science of climate change, how gases such as Carbon dioxide, Methane and Nitrous oxide are warming our atmosphere and the sources of such gases. • Information on how these impacts will affect us including food security, water scarcity, increased frequency of drought, fires, flooding and storms, coastal erosion, pandemics and sea level rise. • Tipping points in the climate system which could accelerate climate change if we don’t act quickly enough. • Build awareness around a 1.5 degree global temperature rise and what it means compared to 2 degree temperature rise. • Information on what’s driving climate change including our reliance on fossil fuels, consumption choices, farming systems, diets and destruction of the natural world. • Information about how natural systems are under threat and how deeply we are reliant on the natural world; as healthy habitats and species are fundamental to and deeply intertwined with our own health and wellbeing. • Information about nature based solutions, such as re-wilding, rewetting bogs, slowing water down in catchments, planting continuous cover native forests. The campaign should be endorsed by respected scientists and overseen by the Climate Change Advisory Council. Finally, people are feeling powerless in the face of the catastrophe ahead. Collectively we need to push past the denial or cognitive dissonance which has paralysed us, into a place where we actively engage with the issue. The public need clear leadership from the government on the Climate Crisis. Please sign this petition and join us in urging the government to develop the climate awareness campaign that we so desperately need.

Cyclists and Drivers sharing the same road space is challenging and dangerous. Cycling for leisure, fast-food delivery and competitive cycling are increasing, as are accidents. It is common to be held back on a country road by three or four cyclists, cycling side-by-side, slowing traffic down. Equally, in the city, it is not unusual to be held back on a busy city street by a fast-food delivery cyclist casually cycling in the middle of the road with their phone in hand. These situations are dangerous for both drivers and cyclists. This creates a passive aggressive streak in drivers that we are all more than aware of. It is now time to address this issue. A solution to this problem is for cyclists to undertake both a theory and practical road test to understand the shared rules of the road. Additionally, I am calling for the introduction of registration plates for cyclists, so they can be identified in case of an accident. Please sign this with me and submit to our local councils. Cyclists are only doing what they are allowed and feel entitled to do. We need to ask the change makers to enact this rule of licences and registration plates to keep the roads, cyclists and drivers safe.

Junk food marketing directed at children is rampant in Ireland. It is fuelling the obesity crisis that is causing immeasurable damage to their health. The State’s own research says that 85,000 of this generation of children on the island of Ireland will die prematurely as a result. But the health and wellbeing of every child is threatened by an advertised diet that encourages poor nutrition and is damaging over time. Children as young as eight are already presenting in large numbers with high blood pressure and teenagers with a cardiovascular age of people in their 60s. It’s almost a decade since the State restricted broadcast advertising of junk food because of its detrimental impact on young people’s health. But it has failed abysmally to effectively regulate online junk food marketing that is more personalised, engaging, effective and therefore far more damaging. Multinational brands have achieved a wholly inappropriate proximity to our children, pestering them relentlessly through their smartphones and behind their parents’ backs. It’s not just an online problem. Wherever children are, junk food advertising confronts them: on television, on billboards and buses particularly near schools, in shops and supermarkets, in sportsgrounds, school campuses, cinemas, through sponsorships of children’s events, on the jerseys of their sports heroes and through promotions by music stars. There is no escape. If you agree this is wrong, please sign and share our petition today.

Everyone deserves to have passions and be celebrated for their achievements. It's unfair to exclude transgender women from being able to compete in sports that they train hard for, just like every other woman in sport. It is important that we create spaces were everyone is celebrated for their hard earned accomplishments.

We are in the middle of a cost of living crisis with fuel and food prices increasing month on month. Women experience higher rates of poverty than men. HRT is vital medication but the cost often prevents women from accessing it. Removing VAT on all types of HRT medication is an important first step for the Departments of Health and Finance to take.

Animal care needs to come before profits.