Plans have been mulled for years to try to keep everybody happy. But an apparent solution made public in May 2019 includes removal of rows of trees, narrowing footpaths, interfering with historic bridge walls, and even the removal of some existing pedestrian crossings. And for what? The draft plans show a route which is not continuous, leaves people cycling exposed at junctions, and looks too narrow for current demand in cycling. Often a lack of funding is given as a reason for delaying projects, but the Liffey Cycle Route has mainly suffered an issue with “politics of space” — mostly a fear of removing cars from parts of the quays despite international examples showing that this is the way to go.  This is as much about what kind of capital city Ireland wants as it is about cycling: A car-dominated city centre or enabling sustainable transport which is better for transport capacity, health, the local air quality, and even climate change -- which is better for local residents, business, workers and tourism.   Cycling has increased in Dublin in the last decade but the creation of safe and attractive cycle routes has remained stalled long after economic recovery while at the same time extra lanes have been added to motorways near the city. Rather then keep spending years of planning each route, Dublin needs to start a quick-build network and there's no better place to start than the quays which connects so much of the city. We are asking that city and national authorities go back to the previous plan of continuous two-way cycle path on the quays to at least trial it for 8-12 months and then ask if people want to go back to the way things are now. MORE DETAILS:  How a two-way cycle path on the north quays can be trialed -- Can Dublin #GreenTheQuays if it means disrupting car traffic?: https://irishcycle.com/2019/08/06/can-dublin-greenthequays-if-it-means-disrupting-car-traffic/ How the NTA’s plan for the Liffey Cycle Route is on the wrong path for Dublin’s future: https://irishcycle.com/2019/05/22/liffey-cycle-route-is-on-the-wrong-path-for-dublins-future/ ‬ ‬ Motor traffic around Dublin's River Liffey quays shocked international cycling experts https://irishcycle.com/2019/12/09/motor-traffic-around-dublins-river-liffey-quays-shocked-international-cycling-experts/ Liffey Cycle Route: Timeline and coverage: https://irishcycle.com/2019/12/10/liffey-cycle-route-timeline-and-coverage/

Mary Harney sold every woman in Ireland down the river when she out sourced cervical smear tests to a laboratory outside of Ireland, which resulted in the death sentence of 222+ women. She was also part of this government that brought the country to its knees when her party agreed to the disastrous bank bail out. “It is a noted practice in institutions throughout the world and will leave a legacy for generations to come of those that helped to shape and build the environment they occupy. Mary Harneys legacy resulted in death and misery for many families, therefore she does not deserve to be honored in any way shape or form !

Figures obtained by the Derry Journal from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) show that almost 60,000 acres of land in Northern Ireland were sprayed with glyphosate in the last two years for which data is available. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the brand which is manufactured by US agriculture company Monsanto. In 2015 the World Health Organisation concluded that the pesticide was 'probably carcinogenic to humans'. Despite this DAERA has stated it is likely to continue to be used in Northern Ireland until 2022 at least. The EU re-approved the use of glyphosate in 2017 however, in the last few years it has been banned by countries including France, Germany, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, the Netherlands, Argentina, Columbia, Peru and Mexico.

The National Health Service in Northern Ireland is at breaking point. Just this week, 10,000 out-patient appointments were cancelled and more than 300,000 people are waiting to see a consultant. One in five cancer patients now receive their diagnosis in an Emergency Department. Despite this, the Department for Health continues to spend eye-watering amounts of money to private agencies to plug the staffing gaps, rather than hire permanent nurses and pay them properly. Nurses in Northern Ireland are paid much less than their colleagues in England, Wales and Scotland, and they say that staffing levels are 'unsafe'.

The failures of mothers and babies in the past in being excused on the grounds of ignorance. Future generations will never forgive this generation for a failure to hold TUSLA to account for it's incompetence to parents and children. TUSLA'S remit is very far reaching covering areas beyond child protection and welfare including domestic sexual and gender based violence services, retention of adoption records, early years services and education welfare. TUSLA is responsible for the most venerable members of our society, OUR CHILDREN,PAST AND PRESENT. Their failures will have lasting effects for many decades into the future. While there have been inquiries into some aspects of how TUSLA operates, there has never been a public inquiry into TUSLA as an overall body.

Long waiting list, lack of services and expert professionals are seriously harming the transgender community in Ireland, who are already among the most vulnerable community in Ireland. It is imperative to move from a psychiatric model of healthcare to a self-informed consent model. Within the current psychiatric model, people are having to wait long periods for a compulsory psychiatric evaluations before being able to access basic treatments such as hormone therapy. Long wait times are often traumatic and leave people with little options. In many cases people are therefore forced to seek treatment or surgery abroad. It is time that Ireland uses the WPATH model (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) and adopts a healthcare guideline inline with best practice.

Its extremely important that farmers take the time to sighn this petition , as I feel its the first step and only step in rectifying the great imbalances that farmers are experiencing, when we as independent farmers elect our own representative to hold position as minister for agriculture, then we as a farming community can work towards resolving farmers issues re instating farmers rights equality something that is being rashioned at present, we can resolve the great imbalances being experienced

We, the undersigned, feel that this is necessary due to a spate of recent antisocial behaviour incidents which have involved the bullying, intimidation and, sometimes, assault of Primary school aged children in the areas mentioned. These attacks have been perpetrated by groups of older children and teenagers

Transportation powered by gasoline and diesel fuel is America’s single biggest source of carbon emissions, contributing to warming temperatures on land and in the oceans, resulting in unprecedented natural disasters. Extracting, transporting, refining and using oil and gasoline causes harm to people, air, water, land, animals, and plants. Gasoline vehicle exhaust pollutes the air, causing asthma, heart and lung disease, cancer, dementia and thousands of premature deaths each year. Vehicle exhaust affects children, disadvantaged communities and communities of color the most, with disproportionate health, financial and quality of life impacts. In the past, we adopted reasonable vehicle regulations to require seat belts, airbags, catalytic converters, unleaded gas and other improvements to protect health and safety. It’s time to act again. Electricity is already viable as a clean alternative to gasoline. Costs to fuel and maintain an electric vehicle are already cheaper than for gas cars, and electric vehicle sticker prices are forecast to be cheaper by the mid 2020s. To protect public health, clean the air, slow a rapidly warming climate, and promote economic and environmental justice, we call on our local, state and federal government officials to ensure that, starting in 2030 or sooner, all new vehicles sold are clean, zero emissions vehicles, not gasoline or diesel vehicles.

With an ever increasing population and heavier traffic on our roads, the current layout around the Monasterevin Schools is unacceptable. Every day, children are crossing roads that have no designated crossing. They are walking on the road because the footpath is unusable or non existent. They are using a junction that is too wide to cross safely with traffic coming from all directions. There are no signs to indicate a school. The current buildup of leaves is leading to ice like conditions on the roads and footpaths. The list of issues goes on and on.. Kildare County Council have refused to provide a traffic warden as recently as November 18th, and with the dark winter already upon us, our childrens lives are quite literally on the line. KCC have quite simply said no money will be spent on our childrens safety. With money widely spent across the county on traffic wardens and infrastructure, Monasterevin appears to once again be forgotten or deemed less important by Kildare County Council. We will NOT accept this. The School Road Safety Action Group, will continue to highlight this issue and will not relent until we are confident that our children can safely walk to school.

Many people in our community are already struggling to make ends meet. This rent increase will add pressure to already struggling families and individuals living in council housing.

VERY IMPORTANT to stop this legislation by Minister Murphy as it will effect our ability to take a court case/ judicial review. Environmental groups outline shock at proposed planning Bill. Proposed legislative changes would make it almost impossible for citizens and environmental groups to challenge poor planning decisions in the courts. Ireland’s leading environmental coalition is shocked at the Minister for Housing’s attempt to introduce new planning legislation that would make it near impossible to challenge planning decisions in the courts and hold public authorities and the Government to account. The Environmental Pillar – a coalition of national environmental organisations – learned over the weekend of worrying developments with the Housing and Planning and Development Bill 2019 that is being brought forward by Minister Eoghan Murphy TD. In sum, the proposed Bill will add numerous challenging requirements and restrictions that will make it very hard for ordinary citizens and environmental NGOs to achieve the necessary “standing” to take cases. The changes proposed in the Bill would also add to the complexity of the court process and increases the risks of exposure to significant costs to those seeking to challenge bad planning decisions. This legislation would row back on major changes introduced just a few years ago to enable ordinary people, their organisations, and environmental NGOs to challenge bad environmental decisions. Those changes were already long overdue and necessary to comply with EU law and the Aarhus Convention. The Heads of the Bill sent to the Joint Oireachtas Committee for Housing, Planning and Local Government last week are very blunt that the proposed changes are designed to make it more difficult to engage in the legal process and appears to favour developer’s interests at the cost of environmental rights. The most worrying aspects (some of which are further explored below) of the proposed Bill are: • Complete change to existing cost rules for environmental cases from a system where costs should “not be prohibitively expensive” to a cost cap rules system with court discretion. This exposes the public and eNGOs to much higher costs and uncertainty, ensuring that many will be dissuaded from bringing a case in the first place and makes it harder to engage lawyers • Change in standing rights requirements for applicants from “sufficient interest” to “substantial interest” and a requirement that they must be “directly affected by a proposed development” and “in a way which is peculiar or personal”. This is in addition to a new requirement that the applicant must have had prior participation in the planning process. • Extension of the minimum time that an NGO must be in existence before it can challenge a planning decision from 12 months to 3 years, thereby essentially ruling out newly established citizen-led NGOs concerned with local environmental issues from bringing challenges • Insertion of a new requirement that NGOs must have a minimum of 100 affiliated members, thereby ruling out the vast majority of Irish groups from bringing challenges. • Increased requirements for the “leave” stage (where you get court permission to challenge). The Heads of the Bill propose going back to the abandoned “on notice” system and adding to the tests and complexity of the leave – this adds to the costs, duration and difficulty of court proceedings. “This legislation would row back on major changes introduced just a few years ago to enable ordinary people and small but committed environmental NGOs to legally challenge bad environmental decisions, without fear of incurring eye-watering costs and extensive obstacles to accessing justice.” “The explanation for the Bill is blatant about making it harder to challenge decisions, with the Department arguing that challenges cause delays. It is bad decisions, and flawed legislation however, that are the real issue driving litigation in this country and this Bill does nothing to address that. “Given the context of costs in our Irish planning system, the size and nature of organisations and the costs in our courts, this Bill is an extermination of environmental democracy and oversight. It is particularly chilling that it comes at a time when environmental protection has never been more important, and citizens and groups are mobilising in a powerful Green Wave given the endless failures of this Government and administration.