The wildfires at the Mourne Mountains have caused widespread damage. The Mourne Mountain Rangers used to petrol the mountains, educate visitors and prevented fires from being started and breaking out.    However, because of a lack of funding, there have been no rangers on the mountains since December 2025. The initial funding came from the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera), Newry, Mourne and Down District Council and Sport NI.  As the wildfires continue to destroy our beloved mountains, the rangers are a crucial part of the solution in preventing these fires in the future. We call on Minister Andrew Muir to intervene immediately and provide bespoke, long-term funding to get the Mourne Mountains Rangers back up and running. 

Northern Ireland is the most dangerous place in the UK to be a woman. But now, Stormont has the opportunity to make a significant legislative change to address the violence against women and girls.  The Committee for Justice can add to the Sentencing BiIl a provision for tougher sentences for those who commit crimes motivated by misogyny (malice towards women and girls). We call on the Committee for Justice to include tougher penalties for crimes motivated by misogyny in the Sentencing Bill today. 

We are inviting people and organisations to sign the open letter below calling for Liz Kimmins, the Minister for Infrastructure, to introduce free travel for Disabled people without further delay. The current half fare concession is both ineffective and unfair. Making this change will address a long standing inequality for Disabled people in Northern Ireland and help to make travel more accessible and affordable for many. “Dear Minister Kimmins We support the introduction of free transport concessions for Disabled people in Northern Ireland We, the undersigned, represent disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, allies and advocacy groups. We are joining activists from SPEC and HalfFareUnfair in calling on the Minister for Infrastructure to make the current half fare concession a free concession for all eligible disabled individuals across Northern Ireland. Access to travel is essential Accessible transport and travel are essential for disabled people to live our lives with dignity, independence and on an equal basis to others. Despite recent improvements, disabled people still face multiple barriers to travel and make 44% fewer journeys than non-disabled people. The government must do more to remove the barriers that exclude us, including reducing the cost of travel. Northern Ireland is an outlier around travel concessions Northern Ireland is the only the part of the UK and Ireland that does not offer disabled people free travel concessions. The disparity in travel concessions available to disabled people in Northern Ireland and every other part of these islands is unacceptable and change is long overdue. The current scheme fails to address cost as a barrier Most disabled people here can only avail of a half fare concession on single tickets, a concession that offers minimal savings or some cases costs more than other ticketing options. Disabled people and their families are more likely to live in poverty than non-disabled people and we have been particularly impacted by the cost of living crisis. The current half fare concession clearly fails in the stated aim of Scheme, addressing the social exclusion experienced by disabled people. Our ask The current half fare concession for disabled people is both unfair and ineffective. Making it a free concession would be a major step forward, addressing a long-standing inequality between disabled people living here compared to other parts of these islands. A relatively small investment by the government will have a significant impact on the lives of disabled people and will reduce costs for other parts of Government. We urge you as Minister for Infrastructure, and the entire Executive, to act now to fix a scheme that doesn’t work for disabled people, unlocking greater freedom for us to travel, to participate and to live on an equal basis with others. Sincerely,”

A UK consultation document states that the practice of docking lamb's tails without pain relief causes them "significant, acute, and chronic pain." This must be prevented. The document also makes clear that the pain suffered by the lambs is not fleeting but 'immediate and ongoing' Minister Muir has the power to change this. We call on him to accept the consultation's findings and act to ensure this painful practice stops in Northern Ireland as a matter of urgency.

Sand dredging is killing Lough Neagh. First-of-its-kind research linked commercial sand dredging of Lough Neagh to the toxic blue-green algae blooms, habitat destruction and more. This kind of mining causes irreversible damage to the Loughs' precious ecosystem. Meanwhile, dredging and construction companies are profiting from Lough Neagh’s destruction.  And the Earl of Shaftesbury - owner of the Lough’s bed and banks - earns a royalty fee for every tonne of sand the companies extract. When the SDLP minister ignored environmentalists and legalised dredging in 2020, they argued that legalising would be benecifial, however recent news has shown gross violations far beyond limits. The more these companies mine Lough Neagh for sand, the more this damage multiplies, and with the Shaftesbury Estate having a contract with the mining industry up until 2046, this could go on for decades more.  Stormont has acted on mining before. Earlier this year, it passed legislation banning filthy fracking - only because of relentless pressure from people and grassroots group. We call on Infrastructure Minister to ban sand dredging today. Demands for an independent enquiry into the effects of sand dredging have been ignored. Studies have identified deep scars, including 17 metre cavities and long-term disruption to sediment systems, which can release stored nutrients, potentially exacerbating algal blooms. We reiterate our campaign demands for a moratorium on extraction of our finite glacial sand in Lough Neagh. 🚨 Join the March for Lough Neagh, Sunday May 17th, 12:30pm, The Battery Bar to Ardboe High Cross!! 🚨 And join the Film Festival & Conference in Lurgan the weekend beforehand saveloughneagh.com

Danny Baker MLA has introduced a Private Member's Bill that will tackle child hunger and poverty during the holidays in the North. The bill proposes that the 90,000 children in Northern Ireland who are in receipt of free schools meals receive financial support during the holidays, including summer, Christmas, Halloween and half term breaks. As the cost-of-living crisis continues, extending these payments for the holidays will be vital for families struggling to make ends meet. We call on every MLA to support and vote for the Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill. 

I don't think we should be showing support for Donald Trump. I would like the golfing community to try and get the DP World Tour to move the event to somewhere else.

Peatlands must come first. They are among our most important carbon stores, vital for biodiversity, water regulation, and climate stability. They take thousands of years to form and cannot simply be replaced once damaged. Developers may offer mitigation, restoration, or peat reuse, but this should not be accepted as a justification for destruction. Peatlands are irreplaceable, and damage to them cannot be made acceptable through loopholes or after-the-fact promises. Northern Ireland needs a better approach to climate action. A huge share of household energy use goes on heating homes, yet instead of properly prioritising retrofitting, insulation, and reducing demand, policy continues to push major infrastructure into some of our most sensitive landscapes. We need serious investment in warmer homes, lower energy use, and solutions that work with nature rather than against it. Our protected landscapes were designated to safeguard biodiversity, heritage, wildlife, archaeology, and their wild beauty. They are not industrial sacrifice zones. The Sperrins AONB is already under increasing pressure, and proposals such as the Mullaghclogher wind farm show how easily these places can be opened up to further large-scale development. If this continues, no protected landscape will be safe. Northern Ireland’s peatlands and protected landscapes are ancient, irreplaceable, and essential. They must be protected now.

62.5% of homes in Northern Ireland use oil for heating - the highest proportion in the UK. And the surge in price has left many of the most vulnerable people in our communities unable to heat their homes. Unlike gas and electricity, the heating oil industry is not regulated - and that means there’s nothing to stop prices rising drastically and quickly and local companies from making millions in profit. The recently announced energy payments will do very little to mitigate the price surge and will end up in the pockets of the heating oil companies. LCC group, a Cookstown-based heating oil and fuel company worth over £1.1 billion, who paid nearly £90 million in dividends to its shareholders last year, mostly to the members of the Loughran family who own the company. Head of the company Michael Loughran has an estimated worth of £530 million! It is time for Stormont to regulate the heating oil industry today and stop these crazy price increases once and for all. 

We are inviting members of the public to sign the open letter below to the Executive with a clear message that the draft Disability Strategy is unacceptable. The letter was drafted by Deaf and Disabled people and their organisations who were part of the Expert Advisory Plan and the Co-Design Group between 2020 and 2022.  Deaf and Disabled people have waited over a decade for a Disability Strategy - we deserve better. “Dear Executive Ministers,  The undersigned agree that the Northern Ireland Executive’s draft Disability Strategy does nothing to improve the lives Deaf and Disabled people and will not progress our rights in any way. We are calling for an urgent rethink and significant revisions to the final Strategy. Northern Ireland has been without a Disability Strategy for over a decade during which we have experienced austerity, the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. Deaf and Disabled people are amongst those most impacted by these changes, making pre-existing discrimination and inequalities significantly worse. The Disability Strategy was an opportunity for our Executive to work with Deaf and Disabled people to demonstrate a real ambition and commitment to reduce the barriers we encounter daily and improve our lives. Instead, the draft Strategy, largely developed ignoring coproduction, lacks the strategic and resource commitments required to deliver change. The promise of an action plan, at an unspecified date, does little to reassure Deaf and Disabled people who feel disillusioned and devalued by the draft Strategy. We are urging the Executive to rethink this approach and to engage in an urgent dialogue with Deaf and Disabled people to develop a Disability Strategy with commitments and an action plan containing measurable and time bound targets to address the barriers we face. We are asking for specific resources to be devoted to delivering the Strategy. Finally, we are asking that the Strategy do more to embed coproduction with Deaf and Disabled people at all stages of development and delivery. We are committed to dialogue and working with you to improve the lives of Deaf and Disabled people and progressing our rights. We believe that the current draft Strategy fails completely in this regard. In many ways we believe no Strategy is better than this Strategy.  Deaf and Disabled people and their families, friends and allies deserve so much better. Yours sincerely,”

The genocide in Gaza continues despite a supposed “ceasefire”. International journalists are still not allowed into Gaza or the West Bank because Israel does not want the world to know what it is doing as it tries to exterminate Palestinians.  While the genocide has been livestreamed to the world since October 7 2023, we still do not know how many people have died as a result. We know that at least 70,000 people have been killed by the Israeli army but have no figures for the number who have died because of lack of medicine for chronic conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, heart conditions etc. Nor do we know how many have died of cancer or other curable conditions.  Every step of this genocide has been funded and supported by the United States. Now Trump has launched his Gaza “Board of Peace” and his son-in-law Jared Kushner shared slides at the launch of the “Board of Peace” showing high rise buildings and fancy hotels built on the bones of those killed in the genocide. Netanyahu, who is on this “Board of Peace” was unable to attend the launch as it was in Switzerland where he would be arrested under the International Arrest Warrant issued because of the genocide. The reasons why Irish politicians and political parties should not pay homage to Trump have multiplied since the start of this year – the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro is just one example. We call on all political parties on the island of Ireland to listen to the people and not go to Washington on St. Patrick's Day to shake hands soaked with the blood of Palestinians.

Under the current leadership team, our council has presided over a series of costly failures that demonstrate fundamental governance breakdown: The Mourne Gateway Project • Initial proposal for Slieve Donard rejected by National Trust due to environmental concerns and failure to properly engage with public • Announcement of intention to relocate project to Kilbroney Forest Park made without public consultation or formal approval from elected representatives •  Repetition of fundamental governance errors; e.g., failing to obtain landowner permission before making public announcements or committing budgets • Wasting at least £1.35m on failed attempts, and putting £30m of funding from Belfast Region City Deal at risk • Newry and Downpatrick Flood Response • Inadequate preparation despite known flood risks • Delayed and insufficient emergency response to affected residents and businesses • Failure to distribute financial support to flood victims • No evidence of lessons learned or improved emergency protocols Newry Civic Hub • Ongoing cost overruns beyond initial budgets • Submission of incorrect planning applications by the Council as planning authority • Use of confidential legal advice to bypass public scrutiny • Inability to demonstrate value-for-money or explain site selection process • Repeated dismissal of public concerns, including over 2,600 letters of objection Warrenpoint Port  • Multi-year failure to address documented public health nuisance • Inability to enforce existing environmental regulations • Ongoing impact on residents' quality of life without resolution These project failures are not isolated incidents but evidence of systemic problems within our council, namely: • Lack of Transparency: Routine use of "confidential" designations to avoid public accountability • Inadequate or Non-Existent Community Engagement: Major decisions announced without meaningful consultation or recognition of ratepayers’ needs • Poor Financial Management: Millions squandered on unviable projects without adequate due diligence • Disregard for Expert Advice: Proceeding with projects despite widely documented environmental, technical and governance concerns The current council leadership has demonstrably failed in their duty to manage public resources responsibly and serve community interests. We therefore call upon the councillors of Newry, Mourne and Down to: • Pass a vote of no confidence in the council leadership • Establish an independent investigation into council governance failures, with the final report being made available to the public • Implement urgent transparency measures to prevent future abuse of confidential procedures The time for excuses has passed. We demand action now.