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Kevin 'Boxer' Moran Eamonn Farrell/RollingNews.ie

'Boxer' Moran: 'Yes, I have difficulties with reading, but I am as clever a man as you will ever meet'

Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran says he has been inundated with messages of support from people since his appearance on the Late Late Show.

WHILE IT’S DAY one for Leo Varadkar, another TD is also starting a new job today.

Independent Alliance TD Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran is taking over as Minister of State at the Office of Public Works (OPW).

The switch-over between the current junior minister Sean Canney and Moran was part of the agreement reached during the discussions on the formation of government.

Canney, a Galway TD, has held the ministry since last May.

It’s understood the pair flipped a coin to decide who would take up the first stint. In another unorthodox move, the official handover is being done at an event in Moran’s local pub in Athlone tonight.

“Sean is coming out to do the official handover, so that will be a bit of craic. I am very grateful for that,” Moran told TheJournal.ie.

Relatively unknown to many outside his Longford-Westmeath constituency, the TD was recently thrust into the spotlight after a raw and candid interview he gave to Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ’s Late Late Show.

Moran spoke openly about how his struggles with dyslexia and depression led to a suicide attempt when he was a young man.

The Late Late Show / YouTube

Since his appearance last month, he has received overwhelming support from the public. He believes Irish people appreciate that he is a straightforward guy.

“People said to me after the Late Late Show, that they like that I am a normal spoken person. I speak ordinary language. What causes problems for TDs is when people don’t know what they are talking about. Why do they use a 15-page speech when it can be done in two?” he added.

Since raising the issue of illiteracy, Moran said a lot of people have been in touch to tell them their stories.

“A guy rang me who recently went for a job to be a driving instructor. He has severe dyslexia. He needs to get something like 63% in the written exam – all he got was 41%. He tried again and all he got was 43%.

“He can’t get the next bit. There is nobody there to help him, and he is just one example. That is what puts people like him back and he stays on the Dole. We need to reach out to people like that.”

He said this is just one example that he is raising with his Independent Alliance colleague Minister for Transport Shane Ross.

‘We need to help these people’

“We have the best qualified people out there that have small little problems and we need to reach out to them. He should be able to say, ‘I have a problem, what is there out there to help me to overcome this?’ We need to get these people out into the workplace.

Our own people want to work and we are stopping them because we are not helping them.

The new minister said the interview was motivated by a wish to address gossip circulating around Leinster House regarding his education.

“Since I’ve got to the Dáil, I’ve heard rumblings on and off in relation to my education. People have been condemning the government, and I heard one particular person saying (on the radio) ‘if you want to sum up this Dáil, we’ve an incoming minister that hasn’t even got his Junior Cert’.”

He told TheJournal.ie that he spoke out about his issues with literacy to show people it shouldn’t hold you back in whatever you want to do in life.

“Yes, I have difficulties with reading but I am combating that. I work on it every day. It’s hard work. For people who are out there who have it, they know what it is like. But I am not going to let it get me down as a minister. I am streetwise – I am as clever a man you will ever meet,” he said.

Help of a great team

So, what are the practical tasks that can make each day harder, and how does he overcome them?

I have a great team around me and my advisor, Eugene, who has been with me right through my career in politics. He was there for me, he got to know me. And also my own staff. I have great staff working for me, who know the issues I have. Yes I have issues, but it hasn’t stopped me.

Moran said he also owes a debt of gratitude to his wife.

“Michelle would sit with me all night if she had to to get things right,” he explains.

“We do a lot of reading and we do a lot of back research, putting stuff down on paper and reading it out loud. We choose the words to suit Boxer,” he explained.

One of the challenges Moran faces consistently is standing up and reading a speech in the Dáil.

The big issue I have is – before I go into the Dáil to make a speech – I have to have it three or four days before anyone else. There is no issue with that. But I make mistakes, I made mistakes speaking in the Dáil yesterday. A friend rang me and told me: ‘I am going to kill you. I told you, one page for you.’
She’s right. She told me that I am in charge of my own ministry, and to do what’s right for me. I can’t hide that there is an issue there, but I can’t but get on with my job.

The Late Late Show / YouTube

His suicide attempt 

Since speaking publicly about his suicide attempt, Moran said he has been inundated with people getting in touch to commend him for being so open. They are also sharing their own experiences.

He said both a mother and her son who watched the Friday night interview together wrote separate emails to Moran, not knowing about the other’s correspondence.

The son wrote and told me that his marriage broke up, he lost his house, he lost his job, everything went wrong for him, he was in a very bad place. He had bad thoughts. He explained to me in his email that he felt like ending it. He told me he had sat down to watch the Late Late Show that night and it helped.
“On the same night, his mother, who is nearly 90, wrote the email to me to say her son was in a very dark place. But they both sat down to watch the Late Late Show that night, she said. The next day she [was] awoke by a lawnmower going in the garden. Her son was up and out in the garden. He then came up to her and asked for the keys and he went down to the local gardening shop and bought a load of flowers and window boxes. He rang two of his mates he hasn’t talked to in six months, and he went for a pint with them.
That woman contacted me a week and a half later to say that everything is still going well for him. She said to me, ‘All I can say to you is thanks.’

Moran said other people have confided in him to say his words allowed them to be frank with their own families.

One man came all the way from County Meath to tell me he had done something similar – only he [had] done harm to himself. He told me the night of the interview was the first time he had told any of his family what he had done.

Moran explained his decision to appear on the country’s most-watched show meant he had to be honest with a lot of people he is close to.

“I had to sit down and tell my own family, to tell my own kids. Some of my own brothers, who didn’t know – that is how much we kept this quiet. But by telling the country what happened, I have now opened doors,” he said, adding:

I am not saying this for any glory for Boxer… Some people give out about politicians – maybe they’re right – but other people know the hard work we do… I have to give credit to Leo [Varadkar] as well. He spoke in one of the papers about the worry he had when he first came out that he was gay. To me that is what we are about. If we all talked more, if we all reach out to each other, we can overcome this.

So what next for the new minister?

He has a long to-do list.

His top priority is dealing with the flooding issues around the country and works along the River Shannon, as well as ensuring that children are allowed in free to Ireland’s heritage sites (something he is in discussions about with the OPW) Moran said he also wants to investigate the UK system of flood insurance (which imposes a levy on insurance companies) to see if it is workable in Ireland.

“A lot of people went for this job – I just have to get on with it now.”

Read: Bar at Templemore Garda College is rarely open, but has a bank balance of €417k>

Read: Leo Varadkar’s first words as Fine Gael leader: ‘Prejudice has no hold in this Republic’>

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77 Comments
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    Mute dB O'Neill
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:17 PM

    63 grand… wow, should have gone to college

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    Mute D'oh
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:22 PM

    @dB O’Neill: And he’s only a jnr doc.

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    Mute Bountyop
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:22 PM

    @dB O’Neill: You mean…should have done Medicine. Of course now you would have around a 1 in 4 chance of getting COVID-19

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    Mute Glangan
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:42 PM

    @D’oh: she

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    Mute Ian McBride
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:57 PM

    @dB O’Neill: You woukd also have needed to get excellent leaving cert and HPAT results, completed a what some might describe as a challenging 5 or 6 year degree, completed an intern year in which is the start of regularly working 60 hours weeks and at times 80 hour, then at leat 2 years as a SHO, during which in your free time you are completing mandatory exams with failure rates approaching 50% which cost several hundred euro a pop to sit. Also in your free time you are expected to complete audits and research to build up your CV to give you a chance to get on a highly comletetive specialist training program, which judging by this person salary she has just started. These training programs have far more applicants than spots, so it is not unusual for people to have to reapply multiple years in a row to finally get on. In addition to all this they are working in an under resourced service making life saving decisions regularly while sleep deprived and hungry. And now they are facing a world altering pandemic that is at our doorstep. You could always consider giving graduate medicine a go if you feel like it.

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    Mute Bountyop
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:03 PM

    @Ian McBride: You could do just 1 year as an SHO and become a Registrar…just saying

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:28 PM

    @dB O’Neill: well it’s the overtime number that will boost the number

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    Mute D'oh
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:30 PM

    @Glangan: Apologies, I didn’t read the article, I just LOVE commenting. :-)

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    Mute Fabio Dillon
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:34 PM

    @dB O’Neill: going to college and doing medicine are not the same thing.

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    Mute Fabio Dillon
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:35 PM

    @D’oh: only? So what? Deserves even more than 63k.

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    Mute Kem Trayle
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 10:08 PM

    @Bountyop: 1 in 4 infected people are medics, not 1 in 4 medics are infected. This is how crap info spreads.

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    Mute Emma
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 11:05 PM

    @D’oh: she.

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    Mute James Gorman #FBPE
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 12:12 AM

    @dB O’Neill: it’s 83k gross with the overtime judging by the net pay

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    Mute paul kelly
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 8:07 AM

    @dB O’Neill: You could try for graduate entry, take 100-150k loan , go back to college, quit work for 4 years, work 16 hour days – pass your exams ,then pay back 1000-2000 a month for 10 years.

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    Mute Bountyop
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 10:06 AM

    @Kem Trayle: Fair enough, I’ll retract my previous comment. Let’s say you’re at higher risk then…

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    Mute Bountyop
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 10:07 AM

    @Kem Trayle: A sobering thought is one medic a day is dying in Italy now…

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    Mute Bryan Moore
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:26 PM

    To get 4400 net a month on that salary their OT would need to be able least 1600 pm before tax

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    Mute Who cares?
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:38 PM

    @Bryan Moore: yes, that net pay figure is a bit suspicious, that works out at about €6750 gross a month

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    Mute Seagoat returns
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:43 PM

    @Who cares?: For your name you really do care. deserves every penny. People coming out of college with business degrees and on 100k by 28 in the private sector serving nobody but a multinational and profits. Hospital Doctors are very underappreciated and there salary is not near reflective of what they should receive across the economy.

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    Mute Who cares?
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:49 PM

    @Seagoat returns: calm down there Goat! Not putting down a doctors role!
    All I’m saying is the figure seems odd for net, I can’t get that net take home pay and my salary is higher!

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    Mute Bilbo Baggins
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 9:53 AM

    @Seagoat returns: 100k after four years on a business degree. Eh … No that’s far far from average. Be doing well to be on half that.

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    Mute RampantMisanthropy
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:39 PM

    Her net salary looks totally wrong. Is she including piles of overtime in her calculation?

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    Mute Natalka Mayo
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:16 PM

    So they had time to fill this out during a week when our healthcare system is in meltdown over cv19?

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    Mute Allypally
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:18 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: so salty

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    Mute CC
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:18 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: Well they did say one of the days they didn’t get home until 8pm due to the tractor protest, so I presume this was well before Coronavirus ever came into Ireland as that tractor protest was a good while ago.

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    Mute Paula Leavy
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:25 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: she mentions the tractor protest so I’m pretty sure this diary was before Christmas. But please continue being a begrudger. I’d imagine she works a hell of a lot more hours than the average worker.

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    Mute Wishywashy
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:26 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: how simple are you ffs?

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    Mute Natalka Mayo
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:28 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: clearly I didn’t read the article but great to see all the best coming out of people in the responses with the name calling etc

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    Mute Tim Tom
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:33 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: Maybe don’t comment smartly until you read the article in full then, what do you expect. That’s the problem with too many people on The Journal, far too quick to get to the comments section before actually reading the article.

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    Mute Natalka Mayo
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:39 PM

    I found it odd that it was a junior doctor this week considering what’s going on. God forbid I didn’t read the article and went straight to the comments. I wouldn’t be the first and I won’t be the last considering most of these don’t make sense so I jumped to the assumption that perhaps it was fake. My bad.

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    Mute Paula Leavy
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:59 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: I find it odd someone would comment giving out about a person completing a diary without even reading it first. Says everything anyone needs to know about you.

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    Mute Tim Tom
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:01 PM

    @Natalka Mayo: Maybe because the health profession is very relevant currently and it gives an insight into their lives prior to this outbreak. One can only imagine how hectic their week is at the moment. Also, god forbid they actually take a half an hour out of their own time to carry out this interview. Would you actually condemn them for that!? The articles might make a bit more sense if you read them in full.

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    Mute Lisa Marie
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 7:49 AM

    @Natalka Mayo: No she mentioned the tractor protest.. that was weeks ago before Covid-19 became an issue.

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    Mute Natalka Mayo
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 11:02 AM

    @Paula Leavy: “says everything everyone needs to know about you”
    Really? Are you always this unforgiving and dismissive Paula? So according to you I’m a begrudger and I deserve to be dismissed cos I commented on an article without reading it. It would seem I’m not the only one who jumps to conclusion because not for a second was I begrudging this person yet you assumed I was and accused me of such. I shouldn’t be surprised though because one look at your twitter shows how you’re super quick to point the finger and condemn people. You’d wanna get down off your high horse there

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    Mute Niamh Lyons
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:47 PM

    How does she earn a thousand more than me and I earn 10K more ???

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    Mute Andy O'Reilly
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 10:47 PM

    @Niamh Lyons: if you’re on nearly €75 k with take home of €3400. You need to have words with HR.

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    Mute Seagoat returns
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 11:17 PM

    @Niamh Lyons: possibly overtime

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    Mute Walt Kowalski
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 11:59 PM

    @Niamh Lyons: has been dying for an opportunity to tell the world her salary

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:18 PM

    63k before tax?

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    Mute Seagoat returns
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:44 PM

    @thesaltyurchin: it’s gross not including OT. Well deserved

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    Mute Who cares?
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:51 PM

    @Seagoat returns: will you calm it! Jumping down people’s throats because they are trying to figure out how she gets that net pay! And fair play to her!

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    Mute Barney's sister
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 11:59 PM

    It would benefit the grocery shoppers if all banks reconsidered the card tapping facility and increased the limit from €30 to€50 for a period of time, most oldies doing a weekly shop would be glad to not have to interact with the debit machines as far as possible.

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    Mute Joe Kennedy
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 7:42 AM

    @Barney’s sister: they have done exactly that I think…..tapped for a €38 bill yesterday evening.

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    Mute Sharp Elsi Mate
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 9:25 AM

    110 quid a month in tolls on top of car tax is just wrong

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    Mute Robin A Richardson
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 11:57 PM

    €500/month for a car? Is that reasonable?

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    Mute Waj Kahn
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:29 PM

    That’s excellent money and he is still moaning.

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    Mute Winston Smith
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:04 PM

    @Waj Kahn: We have to work 60-90 hours per week. Work 1 in 3 weekends. Work weeks of nights. Study for exams that we have to pay for. Study for masters that we have to pay for. Do research projects in our already miniscule spare time that has potential to ammount to nothing. Also have to do all this until age 35. Have to have a PhD these days to become a consultant. Have to move every year to a different hospital. And on top of that we have one of the most stressful jobs on the planet.

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    Mute paddy
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 9:10 PM

    @Waj Kahn: read ‘this is going to hurt’ by Adam kay and then talk to me about doctors moaning!

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    Mute mary grace
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 10:57 PM

    @Waj Kahn: where did they moan? Are we assuming it’s a “he” cos it’s a doctor
    ..I did speed read it as it was boring me so they might indeed have been gender specific.

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    Mute Seagoat returns
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 11:16 PM

    @Waj Kahn: fool

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    Mute Katherine Murray
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 1:11 AM

    @Winston Smith: get over it your education will always stand to you and create wealth for you and your children what do you expect at 35 a miracle ??

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    Mute huzar
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 7:34 AM

    @Katherine Murray: little do you know

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    Mute Winston Smith
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 8:08 AM

    @Waj Kahn: Also not to mention, we very rarely get more than 1 weeks annual leave off in a row. We very often don’t get to take off full annual leave weeks. Can’t enjoy leave as you’re stressed about leaving the team down a member.

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    Mute Lukevic101
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 8:22 AM

    So income of 4400 and expenses of 2424 per month, nets 1976 per month. I reckon the OT is down as gross. Even still only saving 900 per month between them? Wheres the other 1526 going? Is that rent each of 1000 or 500 each? Personally I think she should do her budget on her set net income of 63k, omitting overtime, as this can vary month to month. I dont work for revolut (as I’ve mentioned it a few times in the past) but get a card and transfer a set amount in each month that you can live on. And let bills come from main current account. It’s an easier way to save cash I find anyway.

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    Mute Bryan Moore
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 8:28 PM

    *atleast

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    Mute Pranab Vasudeva
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    Mar 22nd 2020, 10:38 PM

    Crap stories

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    Mute danny
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    Mar 23rd 2020, 4:56 AM

    @Pranab Vasudeva: I suggest not reading them then

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    Mute J J
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    Mar 24th 2020, 6:45 AM

    The figures are most unclear.
    To earn €1,100 net per week you would need to be on €110k per year.
    It appears that this is the base salary plus overtime is in addition to €110k.
    Rent at €1000 each is a rip off.

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