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'If ever there was a sign that the boom is back, it’s vultures building student homes on Summerhill'

Affordable student housing is essential and could be a solid investment for the Government. So why are we handing it over to the vultures, writes Éilis Ryan.

YOU DON’T NEED a degree in town planning to see that purpose-built student accommodation is booming in Dublin’s north inner city.

On Summerhill, North Brunswick Street, Dorset Street and Gardiner Street, colourful hoardings in front of long derelict sites scream out glossy lifestyle slogans: “Dublin will take care of your nights out – let us take care of your nights in!”

Dublin City Development Plan, meanwhile, talks about student housing as “high quality,” “attractive to students” and “a revitalising force”. What it doesn’t say is “sky high rents” and “massive multinational investors”.

Student accommodation is the latest in a long line of lucrative investment opportunities that our Government is dangling in front of multinational investment funds as part of our mythical economic “recovery”. The results aren’t benefitting students in need of affordable housing or the tens of thousands of households languishing on Dublin’s public housing waiting list.

Where will all the people go?

Since the middle of 2015, planning permission has been granted, extended or is currently being sought for over 6,000 student beds across Dublin’s north inner city. The total land covered by these applications is approximately 11 hectares. This is enough land to build roughly 2,000 large (compared to current standards) homes, at medium density, with generous open space and amenities.

Some of these sites – the former IDA site on Summerhill, and CIÉ land in the docklands, for example – were state-owned once, and should certainly have been developed publicly. But even if all these sites were developed through private developers for profit, Part V requirements would ensure the delivery of 200 social housing units on these sites.

What possible rationale – other than pure greed and profit – is there for exempting student housing developments from social housing requirements? Even if one believes student-only developments are positive, plenty of students are themselves in need of low cost, public housing. And indeed, by the Government and council’s own logic of “mixed tenure” development, creating segregated ghettoes of up to 1,000 students, siloed away from the rest of the community, seems to lack logic.

11 hectares of vacant land is a significant amount in the context of the inner city. A 2016 audit of vacant land in the inner city identified a total of 72 acres of vacant land between the canals. Only 13 hectares of this land is council-owned, and the council intends to use much of what it does own for private housing, not public because, it argues, building only public housing on any one site will create social ghettoes.

So, on the one hand, the council is forcing through the development of private housing on public land, to create, it says, inclusive and diverse communities. And on the other hand, it is actively encouraging 11 hectares of land to be developed in a way which completely excludes any social housing whatsoever.

Land is a finite commodity and housing demand is going up not down. So where, precisely, does the council think current and future households on waiting lists in the north inner city are going to be housed?

But will students, at least, benefit? Unlikely

shutterstock_59887279 Trinity College. Shutterstock / Rob Wilson Shutterstock / Rob Wilson / Rob Wilson

But, the argument goes, purpose-built student accommodation will at least free up existing accommodation in the private sector and, given students want to live centrally, the inner city is where it must be located.

Even if we take this argument at face value, the particular method chosen to deliver this – private sector development, incentivised by tax breaks and social housing exemptions, and with zero control of rents – is unlikely to deliver. Even a cursory review shows that student housing in Dublin has become a globally tradable, lucrative commodity.

Zigurrat Students currently has submitted planning applications for the development for 734 student beds across three different sites in the north inner city. It already owns a block of student accommodation in the former Montrose hotel – which it rents for an astounding €13,260 per annum – over €1,000 a month, and three times the full maintenance grant.

Price Waterhouse Cooper was recently granted planning permission as receiver for Wintertide Ltd, a subsidiary of Johnny Ronan’s Treasury Holdings, for a 970-bed development on Sheriff Street.

Within three months of being granted planning permission, the site was sold on to EFIV Irish Property ICAV. EFIV is an investment vehicle wholly owned by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management agency, controlling global assets of over $5 trillion.

Two further sites, along with two more south of the river, were originally funded through Oaktree Capital – a fund which manages assets globally worth €97 billion and sold last December for an estimated €230 million to asset management company Hines, who manage global assets worth €93.2 billion.

What’s the alternative?

The most straightforward concern about all these cases is that immediately after being granted planning permissions, land, development plans and semi-constructed developments in the student-housing sector in Dublin, are now being traded by the largest and hungriest investors in the world. Each of these trades carries a cost that must be borne by students in the rents they pay.

But more to the point the entire system pays little regard to the actual needs of students. A student coming from a low-income family in Westmeath does not suddenly lose their need, and right, to access public housing upon starting university. And few parents, often supporting two or three adults living outside of home, can afford annual, unregulated rent hikes.

So is there an alternative?

Well, a public alternative might, for example, involve the state establishing a student-housing corporation, and investing in publicly owned, rent-controlled student accommodation.

Graduated, rents could ensure affordability while also covering costs, while letting student rooms as tourist accommodation in the summer could provide additional revenue but this time, for the public good, not to line BlackRock’s trillion dollar pockets. Equally, there is little reason why student housing could not be built integrated into larger public housing developments on state-owned land.

Student housing is a solid investment. But why is it that for every dead, wasted subsidy to a useless entity like Irish Water, our Government refuse to invest in those things where they might actually make a return, like housing? But if ever there was a sign that the boom is back, it’s the vultures building homes for students on Summerhill.

Éilis Ryan is a councillor for the Workers’ Party in north inner city Dublin. She is an active member of the Dublin 7 Housing Campaign and co-authored the Workers’ Party’s costed proposal for mixed income public housing in the inner city, Solidarity Housing. www.facebook.com/cllreilisryan

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    Mute Brian Clancy
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:06 PM

    It’s none of your business who calls to my house, try tackling the root of the problem

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    Mute PC
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:11 PM

    @Brian Clancy: Casedemic https://youtu.be/FU3OibcindQ

    51
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    Mute Cecil Orr
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:13 PM

    @Brian Clancy: The leader of the selfish group. The “I’m all right Jack” syndrome.

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    Mute PC
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:13 PM

    @PC: Test, test, test. Case, case, case. Scare, scare, scare. The death rate has flatlined and the government insist on shutting down the country for a asymptomatic cases in the under 45s. This is bull.

    145
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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:20 PM

    @PC: if cases go up then inevitably deaths will follow. You can’t die from it unless you’ve been a case. Eventually it will get to vulnerable and or elderly people and some will die. Case rates are a good indication of reproductive rates and forthcoming deaths.

    52
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    Mute NotMyIreland
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:32 PM

    @GrumpyAulFella: In a nursing home in wexford again, it has already gotten to older more vulnerable people

    29
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    Mute Tom Harpur Photography
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:39 PM

    @Brian Clancy: root of the problem been the selling off alcohol in pubs restaurants and off licence and supermarkets

    27
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    Mute Martin Woods
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:08 PM

    @Tom Harpur Photography: why Tom are they drinking it in the meat factories ?

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    Mute The only INFP in Ireland
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:19 PM

    @Martin Woods: House parties..

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    Mute seamus toomey
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:26 PM

    @Cecil Orr: explain how it’s ok for weddings with 50 guests to still go ahead then

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    Mute seamus toomey
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:27 PM

    @Tom Harpur Photography: I thought the root of the problem was the meat factories and poor conditions

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    Mute CarlAnne Greene
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:35 PM

    Can’t have more than 6 in my house but can eat out alongside 50 strangers in pub/restaurant. Can’t watch a game but can play it, can send kids to school but try stay home from work, put kids on a school bus ( from ty -6thyr are 16-19yrs old) but not public transport etc…it all doesn’t make a lot of sense

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:43 PM

    @CarlAnne Greene: theres a lot of mixed messaging for sure – they have lost control of the messaging and lost the support of a lot of decent people who from the very. outset abided by. strict rules but have had to watch as the. ‘authorities’ failed to get to grip with travellers. from Italy etc – failed to quaratine nursing homes. effectively , failed to get to grip with meat factory outbreaks , failed to tackle the direct provision centre. problem but are now all in. knots about pubs / schools / house parties and trying to implement pretty ineffective measures if the 3 county checkpoints are anything to go by – beyond farcical – govt need to grab bull by. horns and start asking why 6 months in we are still too slow on testing tracking and tracing effectively – and why in the name of jaysus are we still only talking about random testing in airports from NEXT WEEK – complete horseshit

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    Mute seamus toomey
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:29 PM

    @Dave Hammond: they won’t ask those very valid questions because if they did someone would be held accountable

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    Mute Pat Quinn
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:35 PM

    So I can go to a wedding indoors with 50 people but I can’t have a bbq in the garden with 6 ??

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    Mute Marie Broomfield
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:46 PM

    @Pat Quinn: you can

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    Mute Green Lentils
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:20 PM

    @Marie Broomfield: haha

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    Mute Badger the witness
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:24 PM

    No more than 6 people in your garden, no more than 15 for outdoor gatherings.. Not sure on the maths there.

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    Mute seamus toomey
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:30 PM

    @Badger the witness: getting married

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    Mute Newto2016
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:56 PM

    Please. If I want to have my family over for Sunday dinner, I will.

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    Mute Green Lentils
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:01 PM

    @Newto2016: I’m delighted I don’t have to ask mine over!!

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    Mute Chris Mc
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    Aug 19th 2020, 9:01 AM

    @Newto2016: just redo your marriage vows

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    Mute Chris Mc
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    Aug 19th 2020, 9:03 AM

    @Newto2016: just redo your marriage vows and you can invite your friends over too.

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    Mute Vladimir Macro
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:02 PM

    So you can enter a shopping centre with hundreds of people once you are wearing a mask but you cant enter a garden of any size with more than 6 people, whilst wearing a mask.

    This is not science, it’s worse, there is no logic to this

    Do they just not want us to meet up to speak about what’s going on???

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    Mute Green Lentils
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:22 PM

    @Vladimir Macro: yes that’s it. They’re outside your house with the chip they’ll be stapling into your skull in about 10….9….8…

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    Mute Logan Shepherd
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:10 PM

    Bringing in unenforceable restrictions, with the strict message of “please don’t do that” is not what is needed right now. County lockdowns are a bit nonsensical as well when you look at a map. Why not go with a radial lockdown from the epicenter of the cluster?

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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:21 PM

    @Logan Shepherd: get a lot of compasses out and draw invisible circles around cluster sites? You’re joking right.

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    Mute Logan Shepherd
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:24 PM

    @GrumpyAulFella: It makes more sense than locking down entire counties. It’s the same principle as the radius of freedom we were granted during the main lockdown.

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    Mute Paul
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:16 PM

    Does that go for exploited workers in Irish meat plants or the overcrowded conditions they are forced to live in.

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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:22 PM

    @Paul: new measures have been brought in to control that. Too late for the current outbreak but should work going forward.

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    Mute Paul
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:08 PM

    @GrumpyAulFella: I don’t believe you, show me the proof, also too little too late for the people of Kildare, Laois and Offaly who had to restrict their movements for 2 weeks because of these meat plants owners bringing in sick workers with out any sick pay with Covid, exploiting them by putting them in cramped conditions to live now a lot of people are suffering mentally because of this, oh yeh you have 0 followers and your following 0 people you’re most likely a bot.

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    Mute seamus toomey
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:30 PM

    @GrumpyAulFella:

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    Mute Sinead Merrigan
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:43 PM

    @Paul: there is absolutely no proof that factories have purpously brought sick people into work but will agree that work conditions have significantly contributed.

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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:53 PM

    @Paul: you’ve 30 followers. Well done. Do you need 30 to be a human and not a bot? I’ve heard it all now.

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    Mute ianglen
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:38 PM

    My 89 year old uncle tasted his first pulled pint in nearly 6 months last week, poor man cried.
    Now looks like he will be cocooning again. Cruel..

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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:53 PM

    @ianglen: shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve been bringing the aul man down to his local once every two weeks. We get a bit of grub and 4 pints, watch a bit of ball, no problem. Pub layout is great and people are kept apart. It’s ultimately people’s own decision as to what harm they want to expose themselves to. Older people will complain if they are advised to stay in and then complain if they go out and catch it in a pub. Ultimately the individual decides. If the aul man wants a pint then I’ll bring him for one and we’ll mind ourselves.

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    Mute Eamo
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:56 PM

    @ianglen: was it flat?

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    Mute Oracle Steve
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:36 PM

    They can all phukk right off. They’ve lost me with their asinine decisions. The 2KM rule was $tup|d enough but allowing indoor weddings but nobody in an 80,000 person stadium.

    You are the weakest link and I’m ignoring everything you ask. You’ve lost my respect

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    Mute Mick Costello
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:24 PM

    Joke these are pushing for a reaction and I’d say they are getting close

    50
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    Mute Bennett blaster
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:18 PM

    Mass is ok though, no enforcement of masks in public places. Pain in me ding dong with their nonsense

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    Mute Aunties
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    Aug 18th 2020, 10:52 PM

    Fred n Rosemary West had 6 in their garden

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    Mute Marie Louise Ryan
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    Aug 18th 2020, 11:37 PM

    @Aunties: omg hahaha

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    Mute Marie Broomfield
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:44 PM

    Some people are purposeless confused! How much clearer does it have to be, no more than 6 people from outside the home and from no more than 3 household! What’s confusing?

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    Mute GrumpyAulFella
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:55 PM

    @Marie Broomfield: they need to be nanny’d.

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    Mute Logan Shepherd
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:57 PM

    @Marie Broomfield: You’re post ..

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    Mute Logan Shepherd
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:05 PM

    @Logan Shepherd: *Your. Smartarsery withdrawn ..

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    Mute Monster Munch
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:20 PM

    The Guards will be busy

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    Mute De Rossi
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    Aug 18th 2020, 11:53 PM

    @Monster Munch: will they? Genuine question… Is it advisory or law?

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    Mute Joan Featherstone
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    Aug 19th 2020, 6:53 AM

    @De Rossi: I think advisory at the moment but the attorney general is getting involved so that will most likely change!

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    Mute De Rossi
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    Aug 19th 2020, 9:20 AM

    @Joan Featherstone: Thanks Joan. I dont know if the buy in from the public will be there if this is only advisory.

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    Mute Real Online Career
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    Aug 18th 2020, 9:48 PM

    Bring back Phrase one, I would rather be isolated from the people crying that they can’t go to pub.

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    Mute Joan Featherstone
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    Aug 19th 2020, 6:54 AM

    @Real Online Career: nothing to stop you isolating yourself?

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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Aug 18th 2020, 8:24 PM

    Complete spoofer.

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    Mute Isabel Oliveira
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    Aug 19th 2020, 12:02 AM

    Get lost

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    Mute Pádraig Ó Pravda
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    Aug 19th 2020, 7:15 AM

    NPHET – Nazi Party Hacks Exercising Tyranny

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Aug 19th 2020, 10:13 AM

    Unless you’re getting married, or having a mass.

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