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Thousands of Northern refugees streamed over the border in the 1970s - some were called "ungrateful"

The situation is detailed in a memo to Government from 1973.

Northern Ireland Troubles Riot police in Derry, 1969 Peter Kemp Peter Kemp

IN 1969, REFUGEES from Northern Ireland began to stream across the border to the Republic to escape the violence of the Troubles.

How the State reacted to this is detailed in documents released in a file in the 1984 State Papers.

The memorandum for the Government on catering for Northern Refugees was sent to them on 26 January 1973, accompanying a bill for the care of displaced persons.

The memo reveals:

  • The number of refugees was unprecedented
  • Some refugees were ‘demanding’
  • Local authorities butted heads with the Department of Defence
  • Some refugees thought they were going on ‘holiday’

The document details how refugees were put up in more and more army camps as the “refugee problem” grew.

“Streaming” over the border

PA-8647620 Women and children stand near an armed British military soldier patrols a street in Belfast, 1972 AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The memo states that the problem “erupted” when refugees “streamed over the border” from the North in August 1969.

It was decided that the army authorities would house and feed all refugees in two camps, Gormanston and Finner, and other centres would be opened in necessary.

The Irish Red Cross was charged with collecting money and relief supplies for the refugees. It also supplied them with pocket money and gave them food, clothing, washing machines, first aid, organised school buses, brought patients to hospital and more.

The Red Cross paid for all the transport and the free travel vouchers people were given to return to their homes.

Counties “convenient to the border” were alerted to the possibility that if large numbers of refugees continued to arrive, local authorities would have to get involved.

“Ominous numbers” of refugees

Northern Ireland Troubles British soldiers stand guard behind a barbed wire barricade, Derry, 1969 Peter Kemp Peter Kemp

Then in the summer of 1970, more refugees arrived. While 720 arrived in 1969, the peak figure in 1970 was 1,558.

In July 1971, refugees arrived “in somewhat ominous numbers”, but by the second week of August 1971, they began to arrive in “unprecedented numbers” and the capacity of army refugee centres at Gormanston, Finner, Kilworth, Coolmoney, Kildare, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Tralee were soon greatly exceeded.

The Minister had to call on the local authorities for help, and communities and religious leaders put their facilities and services at the refugees’ disposal.

  • Six hundred refugees were even accommodated for a short time at the training depot in Templemore by An Garda Síochána.
  • At its peak, 1,695 people were being catered for by the Army, and 2,714 outside of army centres.

It was even allowed that civil servants who were members of organisations like the Civil Defence and Irish Red Cross could be granted special leave to give their time voluntarily to help.

Local authorities asked to step in

Northern Ireland Troubles Local people walk past British troops on guard in the streets after violence in Northern Ireland in August 1969. Kemp Kemp

Then, in 1972, it was decided “for military reasons” that the army would not be asked to look after any future refugees, so local authorities were asked to make contingency plans.

“Every Local Authority was expected to take a quota of refugees,” says the memo. The Health Boards were asked to help, and the responsibility for general direction and co-ordination of the refugees rested with the Department of Defence’s Civil Defence Branch.

The Vote for Defence bore any costs, except transport and “comforts”, which the Irish Red Cross looked after.

Nearly 10,000 refugees in 1972

In 1972, more refugees arrived, and the number didn’t go below the 2000 mark until August of that year.

“Approximately 9,800 refugees in all were handled during the months of July and August 1972,” says the memo.

The operation was a major one, but was “accomplished with considerable smoothness”.

Northern Ireland Troubles Wreckage of houses and shops in the Falls Road area of Belfast, Northern Ireland in March 1972. Laurent Laurent

Each year’s influx of refugees brought “with it a number of social problems cases who would be misfits no matter where they were”, says the memo.

Another difficulty was “casual people” arriving and declaring themselves refugees. The memo warns that “many who have no good reason to leave their homes in the North inevitably do”.

It also says that as long as there was unrest, there was the possibility of refugees.

“Ungrateful” refugees

BRITISH TROOPS GUARD BEACH British troops on a beach near Belfast, 1972 AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The memo notes that the first refugees, from 1969 – 1971, came due to fears about their personal safety:

most of them came on the spur of the moment and in great haste, bringing with them only what they wore.

By 1972, this had changed.

“The refugees on this occasion had obviously made preparations in advance for a holiday in the South,” says the memo, adding most of the children had swimming gear, tennis racquets and fishing rods in their possession.

It describes how in Waterford, one group reported they were not actually refugees but “had understood that they were being sent down on a holiday to hotels, private houses, etc” – and there were similar stories coming from Cork and Dublin.

It was reported that groups were collecting money for thes “holidays”. There were worries this situation could be “exploited by extremists” or unscrupulous people.

Refugees are not always just frightened people who are thankful for the assistance being given them. Some of them can be very demanding and ungrateful, even obstreperous and fractious – as well as, particularly in the case of teenage boys, destructive.

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Crowds participate in the Catholic Civil Rights protest march at Newry, February 6, 1972 Laurent Laurent

But irrespective of their attitudes, government policy “has been interpreted… as requiring that they should all be accepted without question and treated to the best of our ability as groups of Irish people in need of help at a very difficult time”.

It also notes that due to the “holiday” reports, “the reality of the need of the refugees for a respite from the unnerving atmosphere of the North was not always fully appreciated locally”.

The memo details fears that there could be a “major crisis situation arising at any time of the year involving numbers of refugees vastly in excess of anything experienced hitherto”.

This situation could even lead to closing all boarding (and perhaps other) schools – it was discussed that powers of compulsory acquisition of accommodation on a temporary basis might become essential.

Bloody Sunday Aftermath The aftermath of Bloody Sunday in 1972 AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

The Minister for Defence drafted a general scheme of a bill to enable legislation to be drafted and held, in case the temporary acquisition of accommodation for refugees was needed.

With no legal onus on local authorities to look after refugees, it was “only by the exercise of much persuasion and tact on the part of the Civil Defence controlling staff in the Department of Defence that all County Managers were eventually prevailed upon to undertake responsibility for the accommodation and care of Northern refugees”.

“They appear to convey the impression that they are being unduly imposed upon in this matter”, says the document.

But the Minister for Defence felt that if any special legislation in relation to Northern refugees was introduced, it should also provide for the imposition on Local Authorities the duty to provide for their accommodation, maintenance and welfare.

National Archives 1984 2014/32/2058

Read: The Troubles and the Disappeared: ‘Another chapter closed in the tragic saga’>

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76 Comments
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    Mute
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:43 PM

    How will that affect his shareholding in REIT though? Oh right it won’t because there is nowhere to rent because he and his other career politicians destroyed the rental market intentionally for the un.

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    Mute Thesaltyurchin
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:52 PM

    @: “were turning a corner on 10/12 of undersupply”… literally admitting they didn’t do their jobs, but its all grand.

    271
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    Mute
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 3:46 PM

    @Thesaltyurchin: yep, sure what would be the consequences to squandering billions in usury money to line his own pockets with investment and share returns. 12 years of working out ways to extort the tax payer. He does nothing other p I s s I n g on us and tell us its raining.

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    Mute John John Jon
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:49 PM

    There should be no tax to pay for us awesome landlords

    7
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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 8:06 PM

    @: Yep and when you consider the housing crisis we are experiencing now was predicted over a decade ago and FFG have been the government all that time it makes one wonder what the last four Ministers of Housing were actually doing because they certainly weren’t trying to solve said crisis. Now look at us, its totally unacceptable.

    74
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    Mute Rob Ryan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:39 PM

    This made is the definition of delusion!

    311
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    Mute Rob Ryan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:40 PM

    @Rob Ryan: “man”

    72
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    Mute Roj Blake
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:50 PM

    @Rob Ryan: such as those who ignore the massive increase in the delivery of housing since he became Minister ?

    32
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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:01 PM

    @Roj Blake: Where?

    182
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    Mute Jerry LeFrog
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:33 PM

    @David Corrigan: in some of the department figures, somewhere. Not on the ground
    Mind you, they may deliver a year’s worth of their objectives in about 6 to 7 years, if we’re lucky

    141
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    Mute Tom Newell
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:11 PM

    @Roj Blake: please tell us I need a good laugh

    123
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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:51 PM

    @Tom Newell: dont mind Stephen, he doesn’t post under his real name anymore because everyone was laughing at him for getting kicked out of FF and he still shills for them every day hahaha

    107
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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 5:31 PM

    @Roj Blake:

    Where has Steven Kearon gone?
    Since he has stopped posting under his real name you & john john have turned up with the same claptrap.
    Probably just a coincidence.

    91
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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 5:41 PM

    @David Corrigan: Well I live in Limerick city and houses have been built and are halfway or starting on all sides of the city,plus two new secondary schools and a hospital on the southside,don’t know about the rest of the country but non stop building in Limerick.

    3
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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:09 PM

    @Daniel Roche: and how many of them are being built by the government?

    38
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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:10 PM

    @Tom Newell: Limerick city,where I live,I’m on holidays this week,more than happy to give you a tour of the houses built,half built,just starting,this is my name on Facebook if you want to organise, fully accept could be totally different across the country but there is a serious about of building works in Limerick across housing, schools, hospitals etc.

    3
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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:31 PM

    @Daniel Roche: ROFL

    25
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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:36 PM

    @Frank Cauldhame: Genuinely don’t know what that means, sorry.

    3
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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:39 PM

    @Martin Mongan: Well I haven’t seen any ministers actually building them but plenty of social housing if that is what you mean, just ten minutes walk from me,the blood mill roadmulgrave street,not enough but great to see it.

    1
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    Mute Daniel Roche
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:46 PM

    @Frank Cauldhame: Had to Google it,not sure how that is funny,I’m more than happy to give you a tour of Limerick,the question was asked where,I said Limerick city cause I’m living in Limerick city,to anyone on here more than happy to show you building works going on in Limerick and show what has been built,I didn’t vote for any of government parties but there is a huge amount of construction in Limerick and I’m happy to show anyone on here, maybe look at the facts before laughing on the floor, education is no burden.

    1
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    Mute MrFactChecker
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:18 PM

    More FFG ‘Schemes’…A few crumbs here and there to make it seem like their doing something

    209
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    Mute N D K
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:44 PM

    FFG out

    197
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    Mute Jerry LeFrog
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:30 PM

    Tackling the symptom instead of the disease, again.
    That smacks of the usual “vote for me, the money’s great, I can’t get enough of it”

    183
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    Mute Sean Murphy
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:39 PM

    More short term fixes that do nothing more than increase the cost of renting! This does nothing to alleviate the crisis. Same as HAP. We need more supply of housing.

    171
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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 3:44 PM

    @Sean Murphy:
    Correct, we need more builders which neither FF, SF, FG or any other party can come up with a viable solution to.
    All the restof their proposals are just window dressing.

    13
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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:54 PM

    @P.J. Nolan: I’m a builder, living in London with 2 other builders from Ireland and working with plenty of other Irish builders who would come home TOMORROW if we actually had somewhere to live that didn’t involve paying over the top rents.

    154
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    Mute Jim O'Sullivan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:11 PM

    More public money being shifted straight into the private pockets. How long do we have to tolerate this stuff??

    168
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    Mute John John Jon
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:53 PM

    @Jim O’Sullivan: excellent news

    4
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    Mute Trent
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:48 PM

    they wouldn’t need this nonsense if they took the vultures on with the law’s.. but no it’ll never happen ,, this all started when the greedy decided to get rid of Bedsits in the 90′s which made many homeless and many rich … sound familiar

    258
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    Mute brian o'leary
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:53 PM

    @Trent: bedsits have been replaced by dorms, which are a much more efficient use of space.

    11
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    Mute Trent
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:09 PM

    @brian o’leary: That’s exactly what a vulture or slumlord would say,, i hope your neither and just Naive

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    Mute paulgurney
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:33 PM

    @Trent: you’ll find they don’t celebrate the name Michael Noonan anymore as his involvement in bringing vultures funds into the country under the circumstances they were brought in on was nothing short of economic treason.Now they’re in they’re in.FG at their very best.

    164
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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 6:07 PM

    @brian o’leary: Dorms? Do the residents have personal toilets/bathrooms or do 50 people share same?

    114
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    Mute Chris O'Brien
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:19 PM

    Jazes.

    Has their ever been a worse Housing Minister?

    The will never end as long as FFFG are in power. They’ve had 100+ years and housing – like most everything in Ireland – is a catastrophe.

    But “here’s 500 quid…now shut up”

    236
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    Mute Roj Blake
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 5:26 PM

    @Chris O’Brien: yes, look at the Shinners in NI when they controlled housing portfolio

    8
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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:13 PM

    @Roj Blake: good man Stephen even after getting you kicked out of FF you still go on about the “shinners” hahaha

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    Mute Hurrly 90
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:45 PM

    @Roj Blake: How long has the North been now without a functioning Govment? Almost like it works differently there.

    86
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    Mute Tom L
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:31 PM

    Housing is not a commodity. This useless shower had little industry outside of agriculture, then the big corps and tech giants came, after 2008 housing in Ireland became the new gold standard for investment firms, laws in other countries protect the citizens from this type of skulduggery but our crowd invited them in and changed policies to keep them here. Fffg are not for the people of this country. Prove me wrong

    178
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    Mute John John Jon
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:53 PM

    @Tom L: oh it certainly is a commodity and I profit handsomely from the commodity :)

    6
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    Mute Nicola
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 6:22 PM

    @Tom L: no argument here i think theyve more than proved that they do not have the interests of ordinary people at heart. Im just amazed that no one is organising protests en masse to get them out

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    Mute uUleRhCu
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:28 PM

    @Nicola: and bring in the political wing of a terrorist organisation who have never run a country…..and who’s other half are doing a worse job of it up north.yeah?

    4
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    Mute uUleRhCu
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:29 PM

    @uUleRhCu: and I’ve no time for this bunch…it’s depressing.

    3
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    Mute Eoghan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 3:54 PM

    This fella is a scrounger. We need a hand up, not another handout! It’s honestly a shocking state of affairs that the housing minister doesn’t see that these handouts aren’t solving the issue, they are prolonging it. As a renter myself, 500 quid has only knocked off a portion of a month’s rent for me. We should be in the streets trying to get FFG out, I’m sick to my teeth of reading these last ditch efforts.

    196
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    Mute John John Jon
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:54 PM

    @Eoghan: I would never rent to someone with a disgusting attitude like yours

    13
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    Mute Robert Halvey
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:33 PM

    There is and saying , you can’t teach a old dog new tricks . Oh yea we have an election next year

    161
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    Mute retro sun
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:29 PM

    I want to see the back of FFG green muppets that’s what I want

    206
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    Mute Niall Sheridan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:30 PM

    Da** all use to OAPs!

    151
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    Mute AnthonyK
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 8:07 PM

    Increase in tax credit means landlords will increase rent

    98
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    Mute Hurrly 90
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:55 PM

    I am so confused about thise announcment.
    The housing body confirmed it has 4,100 new social and cost rental homes ready for construction…It said that with Government support, the organisation could deliver 700 of these new homes this year and a further 900 by the end of 2024.
    So they are annoucing/celebrating planing permission now?
    They will build 1300 houses in a YEAR and a half?
    This sounds more like abject failure with regards to housing targets, yet they have a photo op with this?
    I must be going mad. IS this genuinely what the announcment is about????

    95
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    Mute Voice of Reason
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 3:34 PM

    I’ve not seen one policy from FFG that will make a real difference to the housing crisis.

    What would make a real difference is to reduce immigration. Start kicking out failed asylum seekers. Start kicking out people that have lost their passports at Dublin airport. Stop handing out so many visas to South Americans, Asians and Africans etc.

    It really is that simple.

    91
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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 3:49 PM

    @Voice of Reason:
    We need lots more immigration!!
    Advertise in Africa, south America and Asia for labourers, put them up in log cabins and mobile homes and teach them a trade.
    4or 500,000 should do the trick…….
    Hopefully most will bring their families and stay

    11
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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 6:59 PM

    @P.J. Nolan: We need a radical overhaul of how we educate our children. Teach them trades and lifeskills instead of basing their future on an exam which is basically a memory test.

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    Mute Hurrly 90
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:49 PM

    @P.J. Nolan: Most likley your being facetious and yet your kinda right here.
    We need more housing to support foreign Medical proffesionals for one thing. Yet we cant bring in foreign skilled labourers as we have no where to put them.
    Enact an Australian style visa program for skilled workers and students.
    Problem there is we have nowhere to house them so our services will continue to suffer.
    I always forget how everyone working in Irish hospitals are all Irish cos we have such an educated pool of Drs and nurses to pluck from in Ireland.

    78
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    Mute IMHO
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    Aug 23rd 2023, 12:16 PM

    @Voice of Reason: How about we stop rewarding the indigenous population for having scrote after feckless scrote with no interest in engaging in any worthwhile trade or occupation;..generations upon generations of career benefits’ recipients contributing nothing to society.

    1
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    Mute Thomas Reddy
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:39 PM

    And what about those renting houses which the landlords are not on the RTB? Which as far as I can work out are actually more than those on the RTB for the first time ever.

    64
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    Mute N D K
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 9:08 PM

    Second hand car sales man

    60
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    Mute Daniel Sullivan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:05 PM

    Is this the “appropriate process” for requests for the budget that Michael Martin was referring to when he complaining about FG backbenchers writing opinion pieces for a newspaper? Ministers mouthing off at press events.

    60
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    Mute Benjamin Harry
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 5:56 PM

    Why is there not a quote from Simon Harris in this article????

    57
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    Mute Roj Blake
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 1:40 PM

    That would be a positive move, plus not forgetting the Shinner criminal gang wants to abolish all the measures that help ordinary working people buy their own homes.

    35
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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:16 PM

    @Roj Blake: You are more afraid of a party who have never been in power than you are two parties (FFG) who have spent 100 years proving they should be feared?

    251
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    Mute Chris O'Brien
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:22 PM

    @Roj Blake: remembering that 99% of political criminality in the history of the Republic was committed by the parties this guy supports.

    Because in fact he’s just a FFFG stooge, and the ONLY card he has to play is the same one the Unionists use: SF is scary.

    This guy, and everyone like him, knows that as soon as SF is in power and there’s no increase in terrorism they’re all done. Forever.

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    Mute paulgurney
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 2:34 PM

    @Roj Blake: For example???

    103
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    Mute Joanne Stokes
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:01 PM

    @Roj Blake: You are starting to get boring!

    88
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    Mute Tom Newell
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:13 PM

    @Roj Blake: You FFG deluded mob wouldnt know what helping people even looks like. Took the capital turning into a crime pit that dragged in tourists before your wish.com barbie of a minister reacted, the banks and developers literally own your parties and you cant go a week without embarrassing yourselves or the country

    96
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    Mute Martin Mongan
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 4:55 PM

    @Roj Blake: why don’t you post under your real name anymore Stephen? Is it cause people keep laughing you got ran out of FF yet still shill for them everyday online?

    88
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    Mute Roj Blake
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 5:28 PM

    @Tom Newell: “barbie of a minister”? what a misogynistic comment to make

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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
    Favourite Frank Cauldhame
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 5:41 PM

    @Roj Blake: But Stephen you always use misogynistic and demeaning language!

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    Mute Seanfhear míshásta
    Favourite Seanfhear míshásta
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    Aug 23rd 2023, 12:21 AM

    Who cares what he says he has zero credibility now.

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    Mute Dan Dare
    Favourite Dan Dare
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    Aug 22nd 2023, 7:21 PM

    Does he? Brilliant. And who does he think will pay for it? A bunch of suckers who work hard and scrape by and build the future by creating families. Really, people need to pay for themselves. Sick of paying for everyone else.

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    Mute John Moylan
    Favourite John Moylan
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    Aug 24th 2023, 3:29 PM

    Here’s a radical idea : how about the State not taking 52% of the rent in taxes ? Currently the State makes more than the landlord on a given property. The State IS the problem.

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