Coillte proposes to build 7 colossal wind turbines on the slopes of Mt Leinster, adjacent to a Special Area of Conservation. With a proposed height of 178m, significantly higher than any existing turbine in the region, this scale is normally placed offshore. There has been inadequate public consultation about this wind farm proposal and the majority of the local community are unaware of it. As local representatives, we urge you to safeguard this visually sensitive and ecologically valuable area and to protect our natural heritage for future generations. We appeal to you to collaborate in order to save Mt Leinster and the Blackstairs by taking the following measures: 1. Suspend the current windfarm planning application process until circumstances allow for appropriate public consultation. Coillte’s planning strategy has deprived the local and wider community of their right to engage in meaningful participation. 2. Introduce an immediate moratorium on new wind farm developments pending updating of the outdated 2006 national wind energy guidelines. 3. Strengthen County Carlow’s Wind Energy Strategy (WES) by making Mt Leinster and The Blackstairs a “No Go” area for windfarm development and industrialisation of any sort. 4. Strengthen legislation to protect our biodiversity and our Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). 5. Protect and preserve our wild places. • This proposed windfarm would destroy the Mt Leinster region and have a hugely negative impact on local tourism. Mt Leinster attracts locals and visitors from all over the country to its mountain wilderness. They engage in all sorts of activities from strolling along the beautiful country lanes in the unspoilt rural foothills of south County Carlow, to hillwalking, mountain biking, paragliding, kite flying, eco trailing, foraging and birdwatching. - The proposed turbines would be directly in front of the Nine Stones, a designated protected viewing point. The wonderful panoramic vista that currently greets visitors would be replaced by the sight, sound and flicker shadow of these massive industrial turbines, which would totally dominate the landscape. - The turbines would be seen from many scenic trails in Ireland’s Ancient East including The South Leinster Way, The Mount Leinster Heritage Drive, The Sky Road and newly launched Turas Columbanus part of the Europe-wide Columban Way. • With the exception of a small group of local landowners who were briefed in Oct 2019, there has been no public consultation by Coillte. Notwithstanding Covid 19 restrictions, there was no dissemination of information by any means for over a year. - An online information site about the proposed windfarm only went live at the end of Nov 2020 - see www.croaghaunwindfarm.ie approximately 9 days before the planning process began. - The distribution of an information brochure, only circulated in the first week of Dec 2020, was limited to houses within 2km of the proposed windfarm. • Of additional concern is the proposed access route for transport of building materials from Bunclody to Mt Leinster. This route runs through an area of outstanding natural beauty comprising narrow country roads, lined with ancient hedgerows and granite stone walls. They represent a rapidly vanishing aspect of our built and natural heritage. Once destroyed they can never be replaced. Coillte state that they will “temporarily upgrade” this road in order to facilitate transport of oversize loads, which would include 110M columns and 65M rotor blades. • The windfarm would also have a detrimental ecological impact. The Blackstairs contains a vast SAC, a designation which protects endangered habitats and biodiversity. The proposed windfarm site is just 400M from this SAC boundary. Only 13% of Ireland has SAC status. In this time of biodiversity crisis it is profoundly ecologically unsound to build an industrial wind farm so close to an SAC. - The proposed construction site is partly comprised of blanket bog. The recent catastrophic bogslide in Donegal demonstrates the devastating environmental destruction wreaked by inappropriate windfarm planning on bogland. • The new climate emergency bill has identified offshore wind energy as the most efficient solution to Ireland’s climate crisis. Our government has committed to the rapid development of this technology early next year. - It makes no sense to put gigantic and environmentally destructive wind turbines on land in one of the most scenic parts of Ireland when a much more efficient and environmentally sensitive technology will be available offshore in the near future. • Carlow’s WES describes the Mt Leinster/ Blackstairs region as unsuitable for windfarm development because of its value for tourism, the high quality of its scenery and the sensitivity of its landscape. - This same strategy states that Mt Leinster and 14 other areas across the Blackstairs are still “open for consideration” for windfarm development. - This anomaly needs to be addressed - if planning permission is granted for this windfarm it will set a precedent and create the potential for the proliferation of windfarms throughout The Blackstairs. • Currently there are very few wind turbines on the Carlow Blackstairs, but the NW corner of the Wexford Blackstairs is saturated with them. - Wexford’s WES has responded to this by making the Wexford Blackstairs a “ No Go area" for windfarms. - Can Carlow County Council collaborate with Wexford County Council and treat The Blackstairs mountain range as a single entity and protect it accordingly? • Mt Leinster and the Blackstairs have escaped the industrialisation that has blighted so many other parts of rural Ireland. Wild unspoilt places are few and far between. Once lost they are gone forever.

Every year 6,000 grey hounds in Ireland die because the fail to make qualification times or for poor performance [rte investigates].Yes these friendly lanky giants die in large numbers every year.Greyhounds being doped or shot have been reported.These graceful loving creatures deserve better.

Higher education in Ireland has been turned into a money racket by years of neoliberal government policy and negligence in Higher Education Institutions. While fees for students in the north and south of Ireland have increased dramatically over the past 15 years, the quality of education has been diminished. Most teaching staff are under-paid and overworked, and are given precarious employment contracts that offer little in the way of workers' rights and job security. Students are forced to work part-time or full-time during college to pay fees and rent, which has huge impacts on their academic performance and their health. Funding for essential services like student health and counselling have been cut, with further cuts planned in anticipation of the economic downturn. The fees paid by students are not being invested in education or support for students; they are instead being used to give salary increases and bonuses to the upper management of our colleges and universities. These issues existed before the pandemic, but the outbreak of COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated many of the issues we face in higher education. Students are shouldering a large portion of the burden of COVID-19. We have lost jobs, lost family members, worked on the front lines and are still being financially exploited by the higher education system. Student nurses and midwives in particular have played a vital role in the fight against COVID-19, but the state refuses to pay them for their work. On top of that, these essential workers are still forced to pay thousands in college tuition fees. It's clear that neither the government nor the upper management in our colleges care about education - they only care about our money. It's time for students to fight back against exploitation and neoliberalism in higher education in Ireland, and demand that student fees be abolished entirely. Higher education should be publicly funded, and those working in education should be properly paid for their work. The Campaigns demands are: - A public higher education system funded from general taxation - Abolish the student contribution, registration fees, and other fees paid directly by students. - Pay student nurses, midwives, and other students such as social workers for their work on placement. - Pay postgraduate teachers a living wage - Reverse the outsourcing of university staff, offer permanent contracts - Hire more admin and teaching staff to alleviate the workload in universities and ITs - Reverse cuts to student services - Increase the income threshold for the SUSI grant, and increase the grant allowance for SUSI - Cap rents for student accommodation and introduce a differential rent based on income

The loss of Ballykisteen Golf Course impacts the lives of the 400+ members and the 20 employees that are directly and indirectly employed by the club. It removes a vital facility that brings together families from across the county, breaking apart a local community and isolating those that rely on the club for social interactions. In 2017, the Great National Hotel Group received funding support from Enterprise Ireland, a government-funded investment body focused on the creation of local jobs and economic growth. Despite this state-sponsored funding, the hotel group is planning on selling the course as farmland this week, impacting 20+ jobs in the locality and devastating the local economy. We have made numerous efforts to find alternative buyers that are interested in keeping the course open. Unfortunately, hotel management has failed to prioritise buyers interested in keeping the golf course open. Despite requests for both information and cooperation, we have had minimal communication from the hotel. Our understanding is that a contract for the sale of the land is to be signed and concluded this week with the golf course being sold as farmland. We are pleading with the hotel to do all in their power to preserve this facility for the locality. Let's do all that we can to fight for this precious amenity at the heart of our small, but mighty community.

We have proven the demand for a bike park in Tralee. Our intention is to have this park open to the public, free to use and designed to be accessible to all. Any age and any ability level. We have already secured the backing of Tralee Councillors and Kerry County Council have placed the project on the local area plan. Now we need to see the wheels begin to turn and this project get into gear!

Vitamin D is a low cost, high efficacy intervention with – so far as I understand – no problematic side effects whatsoever. An efficient rollout to the vulnerable will save Irish lives this December/Jan/Feb. As detailed below, those groups most at risk of Covid are also those least likely to have sufficient levels of Vitamin D in their system. Hence the need for a bespoke programme, as has just been announced in the UK. Month after month, international studies have indicated the profound gains of having high Vitamin D in our system prior to contracting Covid - and of it's value in high doses for those in acute phases of the illness. This is an intervention that is effective, cheap and a no-brainer. In Ireland, Eamon Laird & Rose Anne Kenny at Tilda published a report in April on the value of such an intervention: “This report demonstrates that of those aged 55+ years in Rep. of Ireland, 1 in 5 are vitamin D deficient during the winter and 1 in 12 during the summer. Of particular concern is that nearly 30% of those aged 70+ and 47% of those aged 85+ are deficient in vitamin D. These are the age groups who are considered to be ‘extremely medically vulnerable’ to the adverse health outcomes of COVID-19 and have been advised to participate in ‘cocooning’ during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Of extra concern is the fact that only 10.5% of those aged 70+ actually report taking a vitamin D supplement – because of ‘cocooning’ many may now lack the opportunity for sun exposure and given the low use of supplements, many of this vulnerable group could be at very high risk of deficiency. This of key importance given the usefulness of vitamin D for immune function particularly at this time. Of particular concern we have observed very high levels of vitamin D deficiency in those who are obese and those with pre-existing lung conditions both of which have been observed to make individuals particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and complications from the virus.” This excellent video by Doctor John Campbell outlines how, in a recent Spanish clinical trial [with a small cohort] strong doses of fast moving Vit D reduced patient’s chances of moving to ICU from 50% to 2%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ks9fUh2k8&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2JAubmKhceUow3U0gLYD5Kkt-laot_jz0IvOrmwrLNv6uG1m2seLkN2d4

Dear Minister As writers in receipt of payments from the Public Lending Remuneration scheme (PLR), which provides that writers receive a compensatory payment for each time their works are loaned from the public libraries, we consider that the present situation of remuneration needs to be improved. This is especially so in the present difficult situation of Covid19 restrictions in which physical book sales have collapsed. There are also the difficulties for writers (and other artists) with regard to book launches, readings and other events which now, under the restrictions, are not possible, thereby leading to a serious loss of income. The current PLR rate of €0.0412 per loan has not been increased since its introduction in 2008. EU legislation states “PLR must provide authors an adequate living and must not be merely symbolic”, yet collecting bodies consider the rate in Ireland “derisory”. This matter should be visited as a matter of urgency with the representatives of the writing community, such as the Irish Writers Union. We also believe that eBook loans should be included in the data for PLR, given the current COVID crisis and the resulting enormous surge in eBook loans compared to physical loans. How can fair remuneration under PRL be calculated for 2020 if eBook loans are excluded. There is also the anomaly vis a vis the UK, whereby although there is a bi-lateral arrangement enabling UK authors to benefit from Irish PLR, and Irish authors to avail of UK PLR, there is currently a disparity between how each country’s payments are calculated. This anomaly should be addressed as soon as possible in the interests of fairness. We hope you will give this matter your immediate attention.

The mental stress and burden faced by undocumented children, the fear of deportation and stigma associated with not being considered a citizen and the difficulties faced when accessing supports that other children take for granted, can be taken away by a minor change to an unkind and unjust amendment to our constitution that was introduced in 2004. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Naturalisation of Minors Born in Ireland) Bill would provide a pathway to citizenship for children who are currently facing deportation, despite having been born in Ireland and resident here all their lives. The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which passed in 2004, removed the automatic right to citizenship upon birth. Once it was passed, children born in Ireland lost the constitutional right to citizenship on birth; the amendment gives the Oireachtas power to legislate for routes to citizenship and naturalisation instead. Following the referendum, the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 2004 was passed which effectively removed any accessible route to citizenship for children born in Ireland. As a result, Irish citizenship law is now based on blood ties, not birthright. We do not need another referendum to reverse this. The 2004 amendment gave the Oireachtas the power to legislate for more generous pathways to citizenship. The Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Naturalisation of Minors Born in Ireland) Bill 2018 would provide a pathway to citizenship for children born in Ireland. It was passed through Second Stage by a majority of Senators on 21 November 2018; Senators from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin and the Green Party supported it, although Fine Gael opposed it. The Bill is being brought back before the Seanad for ‘Committee Stage’ on Wednesday 2nd of December next. Please contact your local Senator and TD's to say that you believe that Children born here should belong here.

There is currently a large backlog for both lessons and tests throughout the country. Returning residents and expats who have held overseas licences for 10+ years often have families and jobs that require the necessity to drive and the current backlog is hindering both their home and professional lives. It would also relieve some of the pressure on the current RSA backlog.

Under the Domestic Violence Act 2018, there are three different orders that victims of abuse can apply at the District Court. These are; Barring Orders, Safety Orders, and Temporary Protection Orders. In many cases, the perpetrator must be notified of an order against them - either orally by the applicant or Gardaí, or they will be notified of the order by post. An order does not take effect until it is served to the respondent. In the case of a protection order, or an interim barring order, the court usually directs that order to be served on the respondent by An Garda Síochána. . The Orders that cause the most issue are Barring or Safety orders as these have both the victims and the abusers addresses on them.

Student nurses and midwives have been doing incredible work during the pandemic, but it's gone unpaid. They face the same COVID risks as any other healthcare worker and the same bills, but get nothing for their work. Worse, many have had to give up their weekend jobs due to the risk of cross-infection, meaning no income to cover fees, rent, transport or other bills. They are the future of nursing and midwifery in Ireland and need to be supported.

We need your help urgently to stop illegal evictions in Sheikh Jarrah. Please help Mohammad Sabbagh and other residents to keep their home in East Jerusalem. Mohammad is just one Sheikh Jarrah resident who faces becoming a refugee for the second time. Mohammad and his family were originally made refugees in 1948 during what Palestinians call the 'Nakba', meaning catastrophe, which saw between 750,000 and 1,000,000 Palestinians driven from their land in what Israel calls its War of Independence. The Sabbagh family fled from Jaffa and were awarded a home in then Jordanian controlled East Jerusalem in 1956 when the UN built 26 houses for 30 Palestinian families who had fled from Jaffa, Haifa and West Jerusalem. In 1967 Israel illegally annexed East Jerusalem and has since made every effort to remove the Palestinian population and cut the city off from the rest of the West Bank. Mohammad is now in his 70's and faces becoming a refugee for the second time in his life. Since 2008 he and his family have been battling a settler group in court over ownership of their property. The Israeli courts have unsurprisingly ruled in favour of the illegal settlers, and 45 members of the family are now facing forced eviction from their homes. In the last week Mohammad was issued with an eviction notice to vacate his home before November 24th. His lawyer has lodged a successful appeal which has moved the case to a higher court. But the threat of eviction remains high for Mohammad and other residents of Sheikh Jarrah. Why Sheikh Jarrah? Sheikh Jarrah has come under mounting pressure from the Israeli government in recent years. The East Jerusalem neighbourhood is a key target for settler activity due to its location. Sheikh Jarrah is located in close proximity to the Green Line (1949 Armistice Line). Sheikh Jarrah has been at the forefront of Israeli efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Jerusalem. What does international law say? According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs the 1967 occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem is not recognized by the international community, “with the UN Security Council repeatedly declaring all legislative measures and actions taken by Israel to alter the character and status of Jerusalem to be null and void.” Furthermore This eviction amounts to forcible transfer, which is in direct contravention of the fourth Geneva Convention. Article 49, first paragraph, of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.” Take action We therefore demand Minister of Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney take urgent action on this matter and call for an immediate halt to the forced displacement of Mohammad Sabbagh, his family, and community. Please take a moment to sign and share this petition. Further reading https://www.ochaopt.org/content/imminent-eviction-palestinian-family-east-jerusalem https://eyewitnessblogs.com/2020/05/29/you-know-we-like-life-and-we-have-a-right-to-live-it-evictions-and-resistance-in-sheikh-jarrah/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/1/15/israel-evicting-palestinian-family-to-replace-them-with-settlers