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Caitriona Balfe arrives at a screening of Belfast in October 2021. Alamy Stock Photo

Kenneth Branagh's Belfast scoops six nominations in Baftas shortlist

Ruth Negga and Jessie Buckley are among Irish actors nominated in the awards.

KENNETH BRANAGH’S BELFAST has received six nominations in this year’s Baftas shortlist.

The writer and director’s semi-autobiographical film, starring Jude Hill, Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe, focuses on a family’s struggles as the Troubles begin and has been nominated for best film.

In total, it’s scooped nominations in six categories: best film, outstanding British film, supporting actress, supporting actor, original screenplay and editing.

Reacting to the nominations, writer and director Kenneth Branagh, who is named in the best original screenplay category, said it was “an amazing tribute to a remarkable part of the world”.

He said: “This news on top of the incredible box office support from UK cinema audiences is truly fantastic. We are humbly and delightfully gobsmacked!” 

Irish actors to receive nominations in the Baftas this year include Ruth Negga, Jessie Buckley, and Caitríona Balfe and Ciarán Hinds.

In the best supporting actress category, Caitríona Balfe is nominated for her performance in Belfast while Ruth Negga is nominated for Passing and Jessie Buckley for The Lost Daughter.

Ciarán Hinds is nominated for best supporting actor for his role in Belfast.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 13 March.

In the editing category, Belfast editor Úna Ní Dhonghaile in line for an award.

Speaking to The Journal last month, Ní Dhonghaile shared details of the process behind the film.

She said there’s “a truthfulness” to the film that she hoped people would respond to.

“For me, this is an important film about healing, and how we can move forward together and have non-denominational schools and children together,” Ní Dhonghaile said.

“There’s a lot of work to be done and inclusion on all sides.” 

Acting awards 

Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars in The Power of The Dog, is nominated in the leading actor category.

His co-stars Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee both nominated in the supporting actor category. 

Will Smith is among the first-time nominees in the performance categories this year, with a leading actor nomination for his role in King Richard, in which he stars as the father of tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams.

Also nominated in the leading actor category alongside him and Cumberbatch are Mahershala Ali for Swan Song, Adeel Akhtar for Ali & Ava, Leonardo DiCaprio for Don’t Look Up and Stephen Graham for Boiling Point. 

Other supporting actor nominees are West Side Story’s Mike Faist, Belfast’s Ciaran Hinds, Troy Kotsur for Coda and 11-year-old Woody Norman for C’mon C’mon, making him this year’s youngest nominee.

Nominees in the leading actress category include Lady Gaga for House Of Gucci, Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza, Emilia Jones for Coda, Renate Reinsve for The Worst Person In The World, Joanna Scanlan for After Love and Tessa Thompson for Passing.

Irish actresses Caitriona Balfe, Jessie Buckley and Ruth Negga are nominated in the supporting actress category for their roles in Belfast, The Lost Daughter and Passing respectively, alongside Ariana DeBose for West Side Story, Ann Dowd for Mass, and Aunjanue Ellis for King Richard.

Additional reporting by PA

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    Mute Alan Ripley
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:32 PM

    The FOI is a joke and a ministerial order to release the info could be given at the stroke of a pen? What “commercial sensitivity” could there be when IW has a total monopoly?

    749
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    Mute Ann Reddin
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:20 PM

    Again a bit slow off the mark there, I posted about this 18 hours ago in yesterdays article about IW. Would have thought it would have been the leading story today, but obviously not. Wouldn’t want the public to be getting wind of the fact that 70% of people have not paid their bills. Well done yee for keeping it secret until now.

    377
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    Mute Frank Cauldhame
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:07 PM

    “Toddle along”, what a contemptuous remark by Spenda Penny.

    270
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    Mute AN other
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    Oct 21st 2015, 11:25 PM

    55% of people have now paid? After a previous figure of 43% why has this figure increased? This just doesn’t make sense although in typical FG/Lab style is probably highly massaged!

    79
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    Mute TommyJung
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:43 PM

    70% non payment?
    Unworkable.
    Stop wasting citizen’s hard earned on this failed model.
    Right now.

    568
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    Mute little jim
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:12 PM

    That cash isn’t wasted, it’s in bank accounts. The nests have been feathered even when IW fails. Thieving professional parasites.

    240
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    Mute Paul Somers
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:29 PM

    The sooner IW is abolished the better, what a waste of time all of this is causing everyone.

    499
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    Mute AN other
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    Oct 21st 2015, 11:52 PM

    Paul, we do not need water conservation in this country, the amount of it that falls from the sky alone is enough to supply a country twice the size of Ireland. Any politician that tries to convince you otherwise is trying to make a quick buck off you

    The biggest cost of getting public water to households is the initial cost of laying pipes and physically connecting a household up to the supply and maintaining said pipes. None of which is related to usage levels of water

    As a result, the best and most fair way to pay for water services is to just slap a flat charge on it.

    Now you consider how important water is to humans, we physically can’t live without it so the most fair way of applying this flat charge is an indirect tax. That is the system we have at the moment, it works very well, why change it?

    27
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    Mute Randle P McMurphy
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:49 PM

    Where was the 16% then?
    If IW figures in May, released in July, were 54%, and Murphy was given May figures as 70% non-payment under FoI..did IW tell porkies to further push its ‘you will all pay in the end’ agenda?

    495
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    Mute de la Rey
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:02 PM

    Good point Randle. We’re promises told and was there any misleading in the dail. Also numbers of registered ‘customers’ don’t seem to match those claimed

    284
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    Mute De Wit
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:16 PM

    That figure is 30% of registered households, not 30% of the total. At that point slightly over half the homes had been registered, somewhere in the region of 775k. 30% of this figure is closer to 16% of the 1.5 million households.

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    Mute de la Rey
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:36 PM

    Ah! I can see why Alan Kelly was very happy with the numbers then and why gov was confident of passing Eurostat

    192
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    Mute Mary Mc Carthy
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:33 PM

    I won’t be paying like most people in this country. The imposition of Water Charges has cost this country millions . Stop pouring money into this stupid tax Enda and at least have the balls to admit you got it wrong.

    472
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    Mute Randle P McMurphy
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:43 PM

    I’ve paid my Road Tax today, hence I’ve paid my water charge/tax. Any other demand for payment is a waste of publicly-funded resources and money.

    414
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    Mute John Joseph McDermott
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:38 PM

    There will be millions more given to RTE, for advertisements, asking people to pay,before the plug is pulled on the whole farce.

    65
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    Mute von
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:47 PM

    Enda has no B@lls but i was listening to Lucinda Creighton to day naming names DOB Lowery with accusations now she has b@lls. I’d vote for her if she was in my constituency.
    And when i say B@lls no man has a bigger pair.

    26
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    Mute windbag
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:35 PM

    Murphy’s requests were refused on the grounds of Commercial Sensitivity…….. I mean this is classic stuff …hat rip to the person that thought that one up ….Classic..

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    Mute windbag
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:36 PM

    * tip

    145
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    Mute Mad Taoiseach
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:57 PM

    You mean commercial siteservsensitivity?

    374
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    Mute windbag
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:42 PM

    and a hat tip to you to my good man…….or mad even

    136
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    Mute windbag
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:45 PM

    commercial sensitivity is the Irish version of …I plead the Fifth on that…

    152
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    Mute Peter Higgins
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:49 PM

    My mole in Irish Water tells me the rate of non compliance is staggering. Not only is the non payment figures fatally high, the volume of people telling them to cancel all bank details being held them since the data breach is like a tsunami.

    411
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    Mute littleone
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:53 PM

    Reality is the people have paid 100% towards water. Through a multitude of taxes. Including 66% from motor tax and 66% from property tax.

    300
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    Mute Maureen Stanford
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:49 PM

    I pay property tax take it out of that . Though that should GO TO . Every thing in this country is TAX TAX TAX

    287
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    Mute Joe Bloggs
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:27 PM

    Pay your bills you scroungers

    235
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    Mute paul farrell
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:32 PM

    Red thumbs coming ur way!!!!

    284
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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:35 PM

    that’s what he’s aiming for , Paul .

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    Mute OggieThe4th
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:35 PM

    I have paid all of my bills that I wanted to pay for :)

    209
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    Mute Colm Moran
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:53 PM

    Joe Bloggs toggle along and mind your own business.

    167
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    Mute Joe Bloggs
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:09 PM

    1 The word you’re looking for is toddle 2 It is my business 3 Toddle along back to playing Call of Duty

    31
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    Mute West Cork Lad
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:24 PM

    Such poor trolling skills from Mr Bogs -Poor pet!

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    Mute Colm Moran
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:31 PM

    Mr Bogs is a right old troll ok.

    102
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    Mute Mc F Kevin
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:07 PM

    Have to agree with you ‘West Cork Lad’ .

    Trolling has gone down the bog

    Poor pet,indeed!

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:38 PM

    No way, the TiSA agreement can f… itself…

    59
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    Mute Supernova
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:46 PM

    @colm battlefield is better though lol

    41
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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:04 PM

    Hey Joe already pay for my water through a motor tax charge and VAT. Why would I pay for the same service twice?

    58
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    Mute von
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:40 PM

    @ Joe Bloggs. Ill pay my hard earned money to what and who i want. You are not going to bully me .

    34
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    Mute De Wit
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:12 PM

    This 30% figure is also wrong, this is 30% of the registered homes at that point, which was c775k, or slightly more than half the households in the country. This puts the actual figure closer to 16% of households paid. Murphy was sent the figures under the freedom of information act, the amount of households that paid was somewhere in the region of 250k.

    195
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    Mute Patrick O' Brien
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    Nov 2nd 2015, 6:14 PM

    WHY, WHY WHY,

    Won’t the ”BUMS” of this country, pay their IW bills..

    People with ”BACKBONE” have paid for many reasons,, mainly a proper infrastructure for their children in the future….

    It’s bums like ye that deserve a left wing goverment, like Greece…….And to seeing you all being led by a dispicable TD, speaks volumnes in itself…………

    2
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    Mute Michał Berezowski
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    Dec 5th 2015, 10:31 AM

    Lol, so being an obedient sheep, taking whatever crony monopoly is being pushed down your throat, is the way of avoiding “leftist government, like Greece’s”, in your corner of the universe, is that so?

    Ridiculous

    1
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    Mute Derek mc keever
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:54 PM

    Good man mick ya lap dog,ill hang on to my money so I can afford to heat the house for the winter

    189
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    Mute Joe Phillips
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:51 PM

    I disagree, Mick.

    91
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    Mute Mc F Kevin
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:10 PM

    *you’re

    Looks like one uneducated lad slipped the net .

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    Mute William Boyd
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:15 PM

    Absolute political suicide Mick.

    77
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    Mute Sean McCarthy
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:24 PM

    Mick seems thinks that being educated makes you intelligent. There are many people, especially in this country, that are eduacated waaaay beyond their intelligence. Mick would probably fit right into this category of educated fool’s.

    91
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    Mute Joe Phillips
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    Oct 22nd 2015, 11:25 AM

    Educated fools with money on their minds … livin’ in a Gangsters’ Paradise

    10
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    Mute Eoin Darcy
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:44 PM

    I’m confused… is non payment at 57%? 54%? 70%?

    187
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    Mute Supernova
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:51 PM

    It would be stayed very clearly though if figures were in favour of payment I can insure you that.. I’m confused as well Eoin. I want to know clearly what % of non payment there is.

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    Mute Brendan McGill
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:14 PM

    As of that date in May non-payment was at 70%.

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    Mute Kal Ipers
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:28 PM

    But others are saying the 70% is of those registered making the figure a lot higher. That is where more confusion comes from

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    Mute Guy Incognito
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:35 PM

    In may it was 70% non payment.

    In July it was somewhere around 54%

    Murphy’s suggestion is that if he’d been able to find out that it was so low in May it might have slowed the rate of people signing up. To be fair, he’s right, and givt knew it, hence ‘commercially sensitive’ (ie ‘we’re worried if we tell you more people will tell us where to go’)

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    Mute Mad Mike
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:30 PM

    Read the damn article.

    21
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    Mute Setrakian
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:38 PM

    The responses from the pro pay again for your water through multiple taxes crew are amusing. If anything it highlights the stupidity of the average pro govt supporter. The quango is doomed lads – grow up & cop yourselves on. Collins – you’re doing a sterling Pat Joe impersonation ( that’s not a compliment by the way)!!!

    187
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    Mute Gavin Delves
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:36 PM

    how bloggs we already pay why pay again u must be a Labour or f2f supporter can pay won’t pay

    155
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    Mute Derek Richardson
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:28 PM

    I ain’t signing my brothers and sisters ain’t signing and a lot other I know so f,,, the bad ship Irish water and all who sail in her

    142
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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:36 PM

    O NO… Has this government lied AGAIN to us…

    133
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    Mute Dan The Man
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:19 PM

    Collins you big handbag grow a pair you gutless clown

    132
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    Mute Mick Collins
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:24 PM

    Thanks for proving my earlier point Dan,
    ps ask your Ma about my pair they are very big

    13
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    Mute John Pepper
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:12 PM

    @mick. Big balls small knob is not a good combination. you probably look like a worm hanging out of an apple. And come on you can do better than “your ma jokes”

    93
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    Mute Willy
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:20 PM

    55 % of those signed up have payed. Even if true it’s an absolute disaster for IW. This is definitely a battle these parasitic government are gonna loose.
    Drop it now Enda and have respect for the people..

    132
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    Mute AN other
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    Oct 21st 2015, 11:41 PM

    Strange how they release the 55% figure the day after Murphy posts the foi response letter to Facebook eh?

    And they’re also still harping on about how it’s a percentage of their 1.5m customers that have paid, that’s 3m bills sent out, why not tell us what percentage of the 3m bills have been paid instead of hiding behind a massaged figure?

    35
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    Mute Cupid Stunt
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:05 PM

    saw an interesting one today where a bill had a zero figure on it as being due and paid, how meny of them are there like that, with zero income for Irish water and maybe even the 100 Euro inducement to pay out,

    126
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    Mute John Joseph McDermott
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:40 PM

    Was that sent to a private well owner or group scheme member.?

    46
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    Mute Jordan O'Byrne
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    Oct 22nd 2015, 1:00 PM

    Exactly what that is. Lad in my job has a group well. Pays 80e annual for it. Gets the 100e grant. So is up 20e. Good work govt.

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    Mute TomTraubert
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    Oct 22nd 2015, 1:52 PM

    Nope, he doesn’t get the grant when connected to a well, unless of course he’s connected to IW sewer.

    5
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    Mute Chris
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:44 PM

    Irish water full off shit

    125
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    Mute Rashers Tierney
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    Oct 21st 2015, 7:27 PM

    This Government and IW, have lost any tiny shred of credibility they once may have had. People, can’t we just rewind, accept our losses (we’ve lost before) and try and move forward? To stave off the vulture capitalists certain essential referenda (or an omnibus referendum) needs to be held. Who’s up for it? Let’s try and make this a decent place to live, and raise children if that is your desire. We NEED the New Republic, lads.

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    Mute Aileen Griffiths
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:37 PM

    I for one have not signed up for anything. To many scare tactics from this government, and looking after the rich. I like most people won’t mind paying water charges (water conservation is good) when, whatever party may take over, they actually correct other levies that generates finance for IW and are a lot more transparent. Water should never be privatised considering Irish people have actually paid for what is under the ground. This could have been done so much better and actually helped in Irelands recovery if contracts and jobs were based in this country, it’s not really fair when one person can be tax complaint after having millions of debt written off when the normal Joe in this country can’t get jack!

    63
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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Oct 21st 2015, 7:05 PM

    iw is a farce,don’t pay these liars a penny.they lied to trick people into paying and not a word about it.

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    Mute Mick Collins
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:48 PM

    I’ve paid and will continue to pay no matter what this champagne socialist has to say for himself,
    IW is never going to be abolished too much money has gone in already and our rivers are running brown.
    I would love all the naysayers to have so much passion for other important issues, hospital beds,homeless, mental health, single fathers rights the list go’s on

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    Mute LesBehan
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:56 PM

    Tell us Mick what have you done in regards these important issues of “hospital beds,homeless, mental health, single fathers rights”? It’s very easy to tell other people what they should be doing, what have you done?

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    Mute Lazlo Saint Pierre
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:59 PM

    I think you will find the Naysayers, as you call them, do have as much passion for hospital beds, mental health, fathers rights etc. If you have paid then you agree with paying E600 a year just to drink water when you are thirsty and when you would like to live? How about increasing tax on food, you will pay that as well I guess.

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:06 PM

    Mick….all those letters you answered from Nigerian Princes…I hate to break it to you….they’re all fake, sorry.

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    Mute Francis McDonagh
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:14 PM

    Is there something wrong with a socialist if they like champagne?
    CHAMPAGNE FOR ALL!!!

    68
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    Mute lavbeer
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:46 PM

    I can make up my own mind and am refusing to engage with a super quango whose overheads will be too high. Look at the recent LC recommendation. They can’t wven control themselves

    I am concerned thought that Murphy as an elected representative was not given information as he was entitled to. Effectively lying.

    Budget was a break from the norm but IW is now a big election issue. They will play it down but given that if you average 2 adults per house then more people have not paid than FG got in votes last election. That’s a big issue for them.

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    Mute John Joseph McDermott
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:48 PM

    Those issues only effect sick people etc and not everybody is sick.
    Irish Water charges effects everybody so it is an excellent focus point for the whole nation.
    Hospitals will never be funded properly that is why even old age pensioners on modest incomes are paying private health insurance.
    The fact that about 60% of ordinary families pay upwards of 2000 Euros a year for such insurance is in actuality a tax on their access to timely health care, which we also pay for out of income tax.!
    So this is another double tax on ordinary families.

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    Mute lavbeer
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:34 PM

    Well said JJMcD. And this is the start of the health off the balance sheet. This is the FG way. When they take CS/PS pensions off the sheet by making them self funding?

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    Mute von
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:53 PM

    Good man mick,enda will be proud of you do will D O B

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    Mute Keith Boland
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:24 PM

    So if you take 70% away from 100% we get 30% not 44% Irish water lying again

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:02 PM

    Hopefully we will see Enda toddling along to his unearned pension come the next election.

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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    Oct 21st 2015, 7:21 PM

    100% of those who have paid the water charges (bankers charge) have paid it. 100% of those who have not paid it, have not paid it.

    100% of Labour Party members have pretended to pay the water charges. Never trust a Labour Party member. They would tell you anything.

    As for FG, they are DOB’s party and serve the best interests of the most privileged.

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    Mute whitecross
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:59 PM

    If there was a competition for the most useless “utility company “in the world Irish water would win gold , We had a exemption which Alan Kelly failed to renew , Irish water another name for a bankers tax ,No vote for any party that agrees with water charges (bankers tax ” copy of a letter about our exemption ,….. “The Irish Exemption”

    Update on Current Situation

    by Kathy Sinnott

    I recently tried to alert people to the existence of the “Irish Exemption”, Ireland’s unique exemption from domestic water charging based on Article 9.4 of the EU Water Framework Directive.

    The exemption is based on the Irish Department of the Environment’s commitment, strategy and budget to rectify the inadequacies in our water management without metering.

    This commitment is recorded in the 2008 Irish River Basin Management Plan. Former Minister for Environment John Gormley was able to confirm in 2008 that Ireland had obtained and was availing of the exemption from household water charges.

    I was assured at the time by the European Commission that the EU couldn’t not take the exemption from us but Ireland could cancel it.

    This week Minister for Environment Alan Kelly publicly denied we currently had an exemption from domestic water charging. He stated “We do not have a derogation because we now have committed to the model that we have.”

    Fortunately he is wrong.

    In trying to confirm the current situation, I contacted Brussels.

    The good news is that the Water Framework Directive Article 9.4 exemption is still in place. The challenging news is that it is under imminent threat of cancellation by the Minister for the Environment, Alan Kelly himself!

    In accordance with Article 9.4 of the Water Framework Directive our exemption is embedded in the 2008 River Basin Management Plan. Any renewal or cancellation of the exemption is done in the next 7 year RBMP. And it is the Minister for the Environment who assembles and submits this plan

    This 2015 River Basin Management Plan is due on be handed into Brussels by New Years Day. Both the Irish government and the European Commission are expecting that Minister Kelly will not renew the exemption and will instead include domestic water charging as part of Ireland’s strategy.

    Why are they so sure that the plan as yet incomplete and unpublished will include water charging? Because in 2010 the Troika told us to privatize and charge for water and both the Irish government and the EU Commission assume that we will meekly obey, that is we will state in the River Basin report that the only way we can protect our rivers is by charging for domestic water use!

    But is this true?

    If the money spent on metering is spent on pipe work the leaks will be repaired. And if the money already collected in taxes for water infrastructure was spent on upgrading treatment plants we would see a significant improvement to the water infrastructure to domestic homes and meet our part of the next 7 year targets on river basin management.

    Because the EU water legislation is based on the “polluter pays principle”, the most obvious strategy for financing clean water is to identify the real polluters of water in Ireland and make them pay.

    In the 2008 plan, the sources of pollution are listed. They included agriculture and rural septic tanks. These sources have been tackled at great expense to rural dwellers and significant improvement has been made and progress is ongoing.Other sources like quarrying, mining including old tailings ponds, leaking landfills, forestry, industry are still major sources of pollution.

    If it is the polluter who is supposed to pay then it should be these for profit industries which should be paying for the purification of the water they polluter and for preventative measures not the ordinary householder who is already paying.

    To give an example. We are told we need domestic water charging to deal with cryptosporidium in our water supply. But again is this true?

    Uplands all over the country were planted in coniferous forests.. Unlike deciduous forests natural to Ireland, these plantations of Sitka spruce trees acidify the soil and do not break down animal waste effectively. After a few decades these forests are “clear felled” with heavy machinery that rips up the forests leaving the soils exposed. Heavy rains wash the animal waste and acid soil down hill to the river below. The resulting pollution provides ideal condition for cryptosporidium and other contaminants.

    Why would the people in these areas who are innocent of causing the problem and who are already bearing the expense of bottled and boiled water asked to foot the bill for cleaning up water pollution they did not cause. The Department of the Environment should instead go to the real polluters,and recover the cost of cleaning up polluted water, or better preventing the pollution in the first place.

    Privatization will not solve our water infrastructure problems because private companies are geared to profit. It will make sense to invest in 500 meters of new piping in a city because it will serve hundreds of paying houses. But it will cut into profits to replace 500 meters of leaking pipes in which serves only 5 homes. A privatized water system will still be a leaky water system!

    Alan Kelly can save the Irish Exemption by making the commitment in the River Basin Management Plan that actual water polluters will pay, that funds collected for water infrastructure in existing taxes will be used to upgrade our systems and by creating incentives for improvements to domestic water use like rain water collection system.

    There is still time to save the Irish Exemption…and the Irish people are in the mood to defend it because once the exemption is gone it is gone for good.

    We have one month to save it.

    God bless

    Kathy Sinnott

    kathysinnott@gmail.com

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    Mute JIMINYJELIKERS
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:30 PM

    Glen Whelan is muck

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    Mute John Walsh
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:39 PM

    Just take money from health care or education to pay for the water so.

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    Mute niall mullins
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:45 PM

    They might as well. They’ve stolen from every other possible source they had to pay for this super quango. Road tax, property tax, pension fund… the list goes on.

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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:45 PM

    @john, 66per cent is already taken from motor tax, was confirmed by FG a few weeks ago on Sean O’Rourke

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:39 PM

    Already done, read about the TiSA agreement…

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    Mute glenoir1
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    Oct 21st 2015, 3:47 PM

    sorry guys but a lot of people have signed up since

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    Mute John Flood
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    Oct 21st 2015, 4:18 PM

    No they haven’t!!!!

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    Mute Eel Knack Mole
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:03 PM

    Oh yes they have!

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    Mute Norman Hunter
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:12 PM

    Signing up to get the grant is not the same as signing up to pay. ; )

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    Mute The Journal TD
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:48 PM

    Glen speaks the truth.

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    Mute von
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:51 PM

    Eel you are not everybody.

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    Mute Sean Crowley
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:39 PM

    Do these figures take into account the 10% of people (I’m open to correction on that figure It might be too low) that are already paying for water through private water schemes
    I pay for water on the farm trough a private scheme which was required to service the rural area it is in, but I refuse to pay for water at home in an urban centre which I already pay for by way of taxes and the house hold charge (they said water supply and maintenance was included in this charge remember)
    Are these figures representative of the public water supply? I doubt it.

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    Mute Eel Knack Mole
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    Oct 21st 2015, 5:36 PM

    I can’t see why the government let this become such a big deal. i didn’t get my first IW bill until late June and I know I wasn’t alone in that. There is no way many people could have paid it by May.

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    Mute Niallers
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    Oct 21st 2015, 7:19 PM

    I refuse to engage with IW. Full stop.

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    Mute Patrick Daly
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    Oct 21st 2015, 7:08 PM

    Murphy is a waste of a dail seat

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    Mute lavbeer
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    Oct 21st 2015, 7:30 PM

    Compared to the backbenchers of government parties who press the green button when told and achieve nothing in 5 years. I disagree.

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    Mute Patrick Daly
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    Oct 21st 2015, 8:34 PM

    and what has he achieved besides getting arrested? If it doesn’t have anything to do with water and a microphone he doesn’t want to know

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    Mute lavbeer
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:40 PM

    You are commenting on an article on a pro government spinning website. You now know that IW were not telling the truth in May. Leading to a reasonable conclusion that their latest figures are true.

    Plus he didn’t add 27bn to the national debt on prom note night (before his time thought). And the recent FoI ahowing the concern of adding a billion needs a bit of contrast would you say?

    I live in Fingal. Farrell and Ryan are my local backbenchers. Achievements? Apparently Farrell sent a RWC fixture list. Not bad for a country spending more than it takes would you say?

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    Mute AN other
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    Oct 22nd 2015, 12:01 AM

    Somebody who really wanted to pay their bill could have done so immediately online or at their nearest post office… A month is a long time when you have this kinda power at your fingertips!

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    Mute Peter Brophy
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    Oct 21st 2015, 6:49 PM

    He’s got a big issue with paying for water but doesn’t mind paying €100 a month for an exclusive Dublin 4 gym?

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    Mute Brian Madden
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    Oct 21st 2015, 7:51 PM

    peter, has his gym membership already been paid a few times over?

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    Mute Arnie
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    Oct 21st 2015, 9:12 PM

    Sorry sweetheart, but if it’s €100 a month it ain’t that exclusive. Is that where you go? Get out and play rugby like a proper man!

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    Mute Ronan Sexton
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    Oct 22nd 2015, 10:37 AM

    He probably only pays that subscription once though.

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    Mute Mark Dunne
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    Oct 22nd 2015, 6:13 AM

    Wonder how many of these are people that are being forced to pay by a landlord?

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