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Interior of showhouse at Adamstown, Lucan. Peter Moloney

Buyers are snapping up new homes in the town once dubbed Ireland's first ghost town

The first phase of a 177 new home development in Adamstown was launched this weekend.

IT WAS FEBRUARY 2005 that the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern stuck on his hard-hat and headed to Adamstown to launch an ambitious new development project aiming to ease the capital’s housing crisis of the day.

This €2 billion new town would house some 20,000 people who would live on 70 acres of parkland, sports facilities, a rail station and multiple schools.

There were big promises and high hopes for the area.

Adamstown was the first of the so-called Strategic Development Zones (SDZ) which benefitted from fast-track planning (something today’s government is also planning to help solve the housing crisis).

ADAMSTOWN CONSTRUCTION BEGINS INDUSTRY HARD HATS Bertie Ahern at a stone setting ceremony to mark the commencement of construction at Adamstown, Dublin, Irelands first Strategic Development Zone (SDZ). Graham Hughes / Photocall Ireland! Graham Hughes / Photocall Ireland! / Photocall Ireland!

Dubbed Ireland’s first ‘ghost town’ in 2012

Plans for Adamstown stalled and it became Ireland’s first ‘ghost town’, garnering international media attention.

In 2014, instead of 20,000 living within the development, only 1,250 of its homes and apartments were occupied, and South Dublin County Council stepped in.

However, in 2016, Dublin is in a whole new crisis.

File Pics Maplewood Developments in partnership with Castlehorn Developments who were the main builders of Adamstown. Maplewood has called a creditors meeting to appoint a liquidator. Adamstown billboard in 2007.

Last year, of all house purchases made, just 24% were first-time buyers. Housing Minister Simon Coveney told TheJournal.ie that in a healthy market it should be around 55%.

First-time buyers rebate

It’s been less than a week since first-time buyers heard details of a new grant scheme that could see them getting up to €20,000 towards their deposit.

Since then, there has been a lot of speculation from opposition parties, and housing experts, about what impact it will have – positive or negative.

It’s for this reason that all eyes were on Adamstown this weekend.

The first phase of a 177 new home development in Adamstown was launched by joint Agents Savills & Leahy Residential on behalf of developer, Castlethorn Construction.

The launch of the Alderlie development came just three days after the Government announced a Help-to-Buy scheme.

Exterior The first phase of a 177 new home development in Adamstown, Lucan was launched this weekend. Peter Moloney / Savills Peter Moloney / Savills / Savills

David Browne, Director of New Homes at Savills said he was interested to see how fast the units would sell following the announcement of the tax rebate scheme.

Browne told TheJournal.ie today that as of this afternoon, 49 houses of the 177 have been sold.

‘Most successful sale this year’

“This is the most successful sale we have had this year,” he said.

He said demand for the three and four-bed units had been stronger than initially anticipated following the introduction of the help-to-buy initiative.

Bedroom Interior of showhouse at Adamstown, Lucan. Peter Moloney Peter Moloney

However, he pointed out that unlike other new builds, which are often on large land bank field sites, Adamstown is unique with its SDZ status.

The infrastructure is already in place here. The announcement of the Phoenix  Park tunnel reopening, the train station, a crèche, three schools – there’s a lot here already.

Since the rebate scheme announcement last week, there has been speculation that house prices will rise.

Price hikes 

Last week, one development in Dublin’s commuter counties, the developer added between €17,500 and €45,000 to the price of houses since the Budget speech.

This is merely a snapshot of one development post-Budget, and not indicative of any trend.

Living 3 Interior of one of the show homes in Adamstown - dubbed Ireland's first 'ghost town' in 2012. Peter Moloney Peter Moloney

It is also not the case with Adamstown, said Browne.

“We announced the price before the Budget. A three-bed house is priced at €270,000, a four-bed is priced at €345,000 and we stood by it.”

Browne said in his opinion, the 5% rebate on the deposit will help first-time buyers, although he said of the buyers he spoke to at the weekend, not many appeared to understand how it worked and how they could avail of the rebate.

Affordable homes

“It is absolutely going to help,” he said, adding that the scale of this weekend’s sale should show developers that there is a market to build affordable homes for first-time buyers.

With the Government saying there is little it can do in relation to the restrictive Central Bank rules (which requires first-time buyers to have a 10% deposit when buying), Housing Minister Simon Coveney has said this initiative will help fix the “broken house market”.

Those on the opposition benches don’t think it is that straight forward.

Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Housing, Planning and Local Government, Barry Cowen told TheJournal.ie that “nothing is more certain than night follows day than prices are going to go up with this scheme”.

Prices are going to go up, there is some anecdotal evidence of that already.

He said his party had serious reservations about it and would be tabling a number of amendments to the scheme ahead of the vote.

Lowering the cost of construction 

Cowen said the scheme is operating in isolation, and other initiatives should have been brought in alongside it to bring down the cost of building a house.

These include looking at certification costs, construction costs, and VAT. Cowen said the scheme should be assessed on a yearly basis as to whether it is working.

One major problem for Cowen is the €600,000 ceiling on the rebate.

Coveney said the scheme is for houses under €400,000, but said the €600,000 ceiling is there to stop someone who buys a house just over the €400,000 mark from being unable to benefit from the scheme.

‘People crying in my office’

Cowen said the ceiling mark for the scheme is simply too high for a first-time buyer and wants it reduced.

The big mistake is giving the €20,000 on houses up to €600,000 when we have 130,000 people on the housing list and I have people crying in my office saying they can’t afford a deposit. The likes of that galls me, it is off-the-wall stuff.

He said he has heard a number of independents also have reservations about the new scheme and encouraged them to support Fianna Fáil’s amendments.

“No one has that money, these are ordinary people – young gards, teachers, whose parents have educated them in the hope they might be able to one day get on the property ladder,” he added.

While it’s not common for Sinn Féin to agree with Fianna Fáil on a lot of things, the party agrees that the cost of building a house should have been targeted in this year’s Budget.

Dublin Mid West TD Eoin O’Broin said the new scheme will inflate prices, stating that a similar scheme was introduced in the England and later discontinued.

He criticised the minister for not taking the advice of the Oireachtas Homeless and Housing Committee (which was set up prior to government formation) which recommended the Government look at how to bring down building costs.

Read: Joan Burton quizzes the Taoiseach on how much his staff are being paid>

Read: Giving parents a tax credit for childcare would have cost nearly €600m>

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58 Comments
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    Mute Tarraing Mo Liathróidí
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    May 5th 2021, 2:29 PM

    So now they realise that people will travel north for cheap booze if they put up the prices here, who would have ever guessed that lads..

    499
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    Mute Mill Miller
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    May 5th 2021, 2:43 PM

    @Tarraing Mo Liathróidí: I won’t travel ,, just the money I give to charity ,, that will be cut ,, ..what a government ,,,

    86
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    Mute Nameo Maximus
    Favourite Nameo Maximus
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    May 5th 2021, 2:47 PM

    @Mill Miller: It’ll likely be the more expensive healthy stuff getting the chop for me, bottle of vino vs salad is just a no brainer!

    61
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    Mute John Fairclough
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    May 5th 2021, 2:43 PM

    They have made owning a home so expensive, no one can afford it. Now they want to do the same with alcohol.

    317
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    Mute Martin Galvin
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    May 5th 2021, 7:46 PM

    @John Fairclough: Yeah, we’ll soon have to rent a bottle of Jameson’s for a few swigs …..

    30
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    Mute JillyBean
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    May 5th 2021, 2:31 PM

    And the Ni executive will laugh back at them

    358
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    Mute ed w
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    May 5th 2021, 2:54 PM

    @JillyBean: I thought ni executive already had a plan to bring this in

    13
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    Mute Nigel o'Neill
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    May 5th 2021, 2:55 PM

    @JillyBean: hopefully and they should

    22
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    Mute mar
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    May 5th 2021, 2:47 PM

    Varadkar said the consequences of this measure “should result in around 200 fewer alcohol-related deaths, and 6,000 fewer hospital admissions per year”. ‘

    Absolute m0r0ns. I’m sure the booze curtains that supermarkets had to install have already saved thousands of lives as well. ffs

    261
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    Mute Mark
    Favourite Mark
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    May 5th 2021, 2:36 PM

    Newry will be booming again, car loads of gargle coming back

    258
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    Mute The Risen
    Favourite The Risen
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    May 5th 2021, 3:00 PM

    Another tax on the poor, as usual. I wouldn’t imagine too many of Leos and Paschals buddys spend less than 7 quid on a bottle of wine. All this measure will do is leave less disposable income in the pockets of families where there is alcohol dependency.

    252
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    Mute Iblis
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    May 5th 2021, 2:35 PM

    The equivalent of the US telling Canada how to price things. I hope you are sent packing. G085h1t35

    289
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    Mute Adam Murphy
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    May 5th 2021, 3:31 PM

    Stephen Donnelly doesn’t think people will travel to NI to buy cheap vodka, because they’d be spending more on petrol than the €7 they’d save on the Vodka
    Obviously the concept of buying more than one thing at a time is alien to him…

    206
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    Mute Honeybee
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    May 5th 2021, 2:31 PM

    Lets hope the northern executive ignore them.

    284
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    Mute Nigel o'Neill
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    May 5th 2021, 2:55 PM

    Lol.. Let’s put pressure on another jurisdiction to change its laws to match and suit us… Couldn’t make it up

    180
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    Mute Peadár Ó'Cearnacháin
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    May 5th 2021, 3:23 PM

    This is a new tax on mere mortals that want to stay at home and not go to a pub when they reopen and enjoy a beer or glass of wine in their own homes. Irish ministers giving a knee up to the publicians….. This is nothing to do with health….its all about lost revenue.

    169
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    Mute Rab C Nesbitt
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    May 5th 2021, 2:49 PM

    The penny just dropped with Egghead that the horse has bolted…….over the border.
    Talk about a cart before the horse legislation. Incompetence of the highest order

    175
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    Mute John Mc Donagh
    Favourite John Mc Donagh
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    May 5th 2021, 2:36 PM

    Goobshiites, not content with spoiling the fun in their own patch, they want to spoil it
    in somebody else’s as well

    248
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    Mute SprintFitz
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    May 5th 2021, 3:07 PM

    That whole business of the government, and not the market setting the prices of things doesn’t seem legal to me.

    108
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    Mute Earth Traveller
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    May 5th 2021, 4:33 PM

    @SprintFitz: It’s called communism. I remember it from the 1980s in Eastern Europe. It didn’t work well there either.

    60
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    Mute On the right side
    Favourite On the right side
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    May 5th 2021, 8:03 PM

    @Earth Traveller:

    Socialism: You have 2 cows, give 1 cow to your neighbour

    Communism: You have 2 cows, give both cows to the government and they might give you some milk

    Fascism: You have 2 cows, give all the milk to the government and the government sells it

    Capitalism: You have 2 cows, sell 1 cow and buy a bull

    Anarchism: You have 2 cows, keep both cows, shoot the government and steal a cow.

    18
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    Mute Mark
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    May 5th 2021, 2:35 PM

    Newry will be booming again, car loads of gargle

    112
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    Mute Tony Humphreys
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    May 5th 2021, 3:00 PM

    All those fireworks warehouses on the border will now stock booze too!

    104
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    May 5th 2021, 3:26 PM

    Sure what could possibly go wrong?

    41
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    Mute paul mccoy
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    May 5th 2021, 3:16 PM

    They have some neck asking the northern executive to do the same . If I were them I’d tell them in no uncertain terms to Fock off.

    134
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    Mute Geoff Bateman
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    May 5th 2021, 3:43 PM

    Nah, just another tax to get more money in for the massive amount they have borrowed already

    65
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    Mute Earth Traveller
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    May 5th 2021, 4:35 PM

    @Geoff Bateman: It’s not tax. The extra money goes into the pockets of those who sell alcohol. Why are we not hearing how this will destroy rural Ireland from the usual sources?

    26
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    Mute Lynne
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    May 5th 2021, 4:27 PM

    The thing is, even now, before this tax hike is introduced, there are better deals to be had on alcohol by travelling to NI.
    It’ll get worse when this is introduced and once people get used to the journey, it’ll be commonplace to go.

    55
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    Mute Cookie
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    May 5th 2021, 4:11 PM

    There’s little good about the DUP but hopefully they will make a big noise about refusing to cooperate on this.

    53
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    Mute Cookie
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    May 5th 2021, 4:59 PM

    Is alcohol to be banned in Dail Eireann?

    55
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    Mute IP.Man
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    May 5th 2021, 3:14 PM

    Why ministers are not put more pressure on their money pockets to prevent more tax money from flooding into it. They acting like priests, restriction prohibitions, taking away individuality…

    54
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    Mute Patrick Daly
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    May 5th 2021, 5:00 PM

    Turning into a nanny state. And by the way anyone know the address of the place selling pints for €1.93?

    51
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    Mute Brian Haines
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    May 5th 2021, 3:39 PM

    ULSTER SAYS NO !

    66
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    Mute Life in no motion
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    May 5th 2021, 6:05 PM

    I don’t remember €22.09 bottles being sold anywhere!

    Ireland is the 2nd dearest in the EU. How does that equate to having “cheap” alcohol? Why is this not a tax so the money is put into the exchequer? What will happen once the gap between cheap and premium brands is narrowed and the inevitable price increase happens?

    Do people honestly think an alcoholic will skip his fix because it costs more? Other things will be dropped to accommodate

    Why do I deserve a price increase because I want 4 cans on a Friday night? Leo said he’d look after those who get up early. I guess anyone who drinks won’t be getting up early after a few cans so….

    This has AAI (tax payer funded lobby group) and VFI/LVA allllllll over it

    To put the icing on the cake, alcohol consumption is DOWN 6.5% on last year

    Fupping baxtards

    48
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    Mute Jonathan
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    May 5th 2021, 4:06 PM

    We’re a joke

    61
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    Mute Seamus
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    May 5th 2021, 3:17 PM

    So they don’t want to tax it. Then how is the price going up from 13 to 20 for a nagan of vodka? Is the offy owners make 7 extra quid.?

    41
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    Mute Divad Nayr
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    May 5th 2021, 3:09 PM

    I hope they tell him to f off

    69
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    Mute Liam O Connor
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    May 5th 2021, 4:53 PM

    Another co##upt act by a co##upt government being dictated to by Sir Tony!

    44
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    Mute Peter Connolly
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    May 5th 2021, 5:21 PM

    Not happy interfering with our market they are trying to dictate the north’s as well

    37
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    Mute The Firestarter
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    May 5th 2021, 6:01 PM

    The funny thing is that they try to pretend that it’s because they are so concerned about our drinking habits, when in reality it’s because the sale of alcohol is way down, and they need to recoup their losses somehow.

    33
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    Mute Davey Ohanlon
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    May 5th 2021, 5:39 PM

    “What we will be doing is putting pressure on the Northern Ireland Executive and on the parties in Northern Ireland to follow suit”

    And how exactly are they going to put them under “pressure?

    25
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    Mute Barry Lynch
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    May 5th 2021, 5:14 PM

    Ulster says NO

    21
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    Mute Seanboy
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    May 5th 2021, 6:19 PM

    This is the reward for the vintners association. Obey the lock down rules and we’ll force the plebs back into the pubs you could see this coming a mile away

    21
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    Mute Ciaran Maher
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    May 5th 2021, 8:39 PM

    If the government is really so concerned about alcohol abuse in this country, then they should remove the dail bar and lead by example.
    No point in pontificating about alcohol when they have a bar in their workplace.

    19
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    Mute Alan Wilson
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    May 5th 2021, 5:04 PM

    The DUP listening to southern politicians

    17
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    Mute Christy Mc Carthy
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    May 5th 2021, 5:15 PM

    I will be brewing my own as soon as the equipment is back online as it’s sold out everywhere

    16
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    Mute Dave
    Favourite Dave
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    May 5th 2021, 5:17 PM

    @Christy Mc Carthy: 100% I have some equipment to get myself started but looking to go to all grain soon enough, i will buy form Amazon… Happy Brewing !

    18
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    Mute Dean Cinnsealach
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    May 5th 2021, 5:16 PM

    Ulster says NO

    11
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    Mute Stephen Campbell
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    May 6th 2021, 12:02 AM

    sugar tax, VRT, NOX tax on vehicles, VAT on tax, high excise on home heating oil, insurance on levies, high insurance polices because of the inflated value due to tax, loaded premiums for not having health insurance your entire life, terrible access to public health service, high salary taxation etc etc etc and now 58% increase on a can of beer…

    “relieve pressure on the health service” by expecting everyone to be a cabbage… if you have any money left over from all the above, good luck have any for hobbies or interests you can enjoy to feel alive.. depressing..

    11
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    Mute Noel Tate
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    May 5th 2021, 7:57 PM

    This is a handy calculator for working out the cost after MUP comes in…

    Example: A bottle of Miller will cost 1.23 min and so a case of 24 will cost over 29. Big difference for the €18-€20 you can pick them up for now.

    http://www.irishwinereviews.ie/minimum-unit-pricing-calculator

    8
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    Mute Nigel Barlow
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    May 6th 2021, 12:37 AM

    @Noel Tate: good news. After putting in some data my fave double ipa from McGargles could be cheaper! It won’t be though I bet.

    2
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    Mute Alan Wilson
    Favourite Alan Wilson
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    May 5th 2021, 5:04 PM

    The DUP listening to southern politicians

    8
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    Mute Anthony Clark
    Favourite Anthony Clark
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    May 6th 2021, 12:28 AM

    so.. from Tesco…
    Nikita Imperial Vodka 70Cl = €12.99
    Absolut Swedish Vodka 70Cl = €20

    Will Tesco bump both up 8 euros – because who would buy the cheap stuff if they are priced the same new price of €20.71?

    By the way – should be Metric Vodka not Imperial as sold in “cl” lol.

    4
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    Mute Paul Cunningham
    Favourite Paul Cunningham
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    May 6th 2021, 6:44 AM

    Implementing an unpopular measure that benefits noone? “Hey, lets make sure that the North is zero craic as well!” Yeah not going to go down well Lads, Remember when they put pressure on us to do something and we rioted?!

    4
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