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Beijing evictions of migrant workers stir widespread anger

“They are chasing people away from apartments and smashing things.”

ZHOU XINCI LEFT her hometown in China’s struggling rust belt four years ago for Beijing with little more than the clothes on her back and a dream to one day save enough money to buy a home.

That dream is now fast unraveling as Zhou, 35, watches as her neighbours — other low-income Chinese migrants like her — are being hurriedly evicted from their homes on the outskirts of the capital by the government.

Authorities in Beijing have launched sweeping evictions of workers who have migrated from elsewhere in the country, triggering a public outcry over the treatment of people the city depends on to build skyscrapers, care for children and take on other lowly paid work.

Zhou, whose husband is a factory worker in Beijing, knows their family will soon be next and wonders how they will stay in the city and keep their 9-year-old son safe and in school.

“They are chasing people away from apartments and smashing things. How wouldn’t a child be scared? My son is scared and can’t sleep at night, of course I’m scared too,” she said.

Her family now pays 400 yuan (€60) a month to rent a single room big enough for their bed, a wardrobe, television set and refrigerator. But with soaring rents and rising discrimination against migrant workers, she says it will be impossible to find another room.

“They say Beijing people will feel heartache if they lose a dog,” Zhou said. “We are living people. How could they treat us like this?”

China Migrants Evicted The owner of a cosmetic shop holds his grandchild near sale notices as he tries to sell his wares. Ng Han Guan / AP Ng Han Guan / AP / AP

Workers interviewed by the AP say whole families have been evicted, often with little notice, leaving them scrambling to transport their belongings in the freezing weather. Many have had to pile their furniture, bags, bedding, clothes and other items into overloaded pickup trucks and vans, discarding kitchenware and other belongings that wouldn’t fit.

“They called us at 5am and by 8am they had arrived with demolition equipment,” said Bi Yan’ao, a 54-year-old migrant worker who has lived in Beijing for 13 years, describing what it was like to have to move out of his apartment in Daxing in just a few hours last week, clutching his belongings.

“In just one hour, they flattened a 100-metre-long stretch of land. How scary is that.”

After that, Bi went to work with his relative at a shop selling cosmetics, but then they were told this week they had a couple of days to move out. On Monday evening, Bi stood in the store surveying the piles of boxes of merchandise around him, at a loss for what to do. He teared up.

“I want to cry,” he said. “I don’t have anything left now.”

Last week, the city launched a 40-day campaign to clear out tenants from buildings deemed unsafe after a massive fire killed 19 people at apartments rented mainly by low-income Chinese migrant workers.

The eviction drive has been met with widespread anger and criticism online, with people saying it has laid bare the stark inequality in China that prevents poorer migrants who provide essential services in cities from enjoying the same status as the cities’ residents. Under China’s much-criticized household registration, or “hukou,” system, Chinese migrant workers who can’t obtain “hukou” in the cities they work in are often denied access to subsidized health care, education and social services.

Most tenants living in such homes on the outskirts of the city are factory workers, construction laborers, delivery people, drivers, cleaners, or hairdressers who come from poorer parts of China. Others run their own small wholesale businesses and shops selling cheap goods. Some have lived for years in the city with their children.

Along the same street that Bi was on, the owner of a luggage store described a similar experience, saying officials came and told her family to leave within days before the area was to be sealed off and demolished.

“People have feelings, we cannot accept this, to be asked to leave suddenly,” said the store owner, who gave only her surname, Yang. “We’ve lived in Beijing for a long time and it’s not about how much contribution we’ve made. In the end, we’ve ended up with not even a place to live, I feel sad. So deeply sad.”

A group of intellectuals signing an open letter to the central government urging the city to stop the evictions and provide temporary housing for the migrants.
One of the signatories, independent political commentator Zhang Lifan, said anger over the evictions showed that rapid economic growth has resulted in a massive accumulation of wealth and also rising inequality and a sense of unfairness.

China Migrants Evicted Zhou Xinci, a migrant from Heilongjiang talks about her fears of being evicted. Ng Han Guan Ng Han Guan

Zhang said many Chinese were quick to extend a hand to displaced migrants because they too had once been in their shoes, having worked their way up the socio-economic ladder to secure a decent middle-class life.

“When they saw that the migrants had been evicted, they realized that similar tragedies could have happened to them,” Zhang said.

In the wake of the evictions, individuals and organizations have offered to help displaced migrants with free accommodation.

Wang Qi, an employee of a real-estate company in Langfang, a nearby city in Hebei province, said it would provide apartments as temporary homes for the migrant workers free of charge for up to three months. A posting online describing the offer said priority would be given to the sick, elderly and pregnant.

“Our boss himself was once a migrant worker in Beijing,” Wang said. “But now that he has become wealthier, he wants to help out.”

The Beijing Work Safety Administration has denied that the campaign is aimed at driving out low-income migrants, saying it covers unsafe housing across the city.

The 18 November fire in Daxing district that killed 19 people, including eight children, was a “very painful” lesson for the government, and the cleanup campaign was aimed at not allowing such a tragedy to be repeated, a statement on the administration’s website said.

The Week That Was In Asia Photo Gallery A man sticks his head outside the window of an apartment where migrant workers stayed in the outskirts of Beijing. Ng Han Guan Ng Han Guan

It acknowledged that the evictions have caused “temporary difficulties” to people who have had to leave at short notice and it pledged to fix such problems.

The Beijing city government said last year it plans to cap the city’s population at 23 million by 2020 and cut by 15 percent the number of people in six main districts.

China Labor Bulletin spokesman Geoffrey Crothall says the evictions are part of an ongoing effort by the government to redevelop land and capitalize on rising land prices. With the evictions, the government is effectively driving out the backbone of the city’s labor force, Crothall said.

“Beijing needs migrant workers to do all the low-cost efficient service jobs that middle-class Beijingers depend upon,” said Crothall. “But if you push them out of the city altogether, then there is going to be no one to do those jobs.”

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    Mute Pat Patterson
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    Jan 24th 2017, 12:57 PM

    You forgot to mention that the amount of verbal diaherrioa coming from them has increased 100% with a deficit in the publics paitence and moral bankruptcy.

    156
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    Mute Cathal
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    Jan 24th 2017, 2:35 PM

    There are 40, yes FORTY, councillors in Dun Laoighre Rathdown. It is staggering that this number of representatives is deemed necessary. I would suggest a quarter would do the job but would settle on about 15 being enough.

    101
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    Mute James Mc Loughlin
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    Jan 24th 2017, 3:41 PM

    @Cathal: GET RID OF THE LOT OF THEM A USELESS SHOWER

    54
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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Jan 24th 2017, 12:58 PM

    It’s the taxpayers who will foot the bill. We have way to many politicians in this small country of ours.

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    Mute Bernard Cantillon
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:21 PM

    That’s actually not true. In comparison with any of our neighbours or other respectable democracies we have relatively few politicians to population. Certainly we may have proportionally higher numbers of national politicians but our numbers of local politicians are actually well below the average. We have under 1200 elected posts for a population of nearly 5 million people. Small countries tend to need to have enough politicians to allow a government and opposition to be formed and governments need to not be stuck with having to appoint nearly everybody elected to a ministerial office due to shall numbers of elected officials. Unless you want all decisions taken either by unelected officials or you want to abolish local government then we need politicians.

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    Mute Bernard Cantillon
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:22 PM

    And we pay less than €20k for a councillor. You wouldn’t get a clerical officer for that.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:28 PM

    Shhh Bernard. You’re letting facts get in the way of an internet rant

    43
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    Mute Shane McGettrick
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:28 PM

    Pretty good going for part time work , particularly when there’s no job requirements other than being above the legal age.

    86
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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:29 PM

    Bernard Cantillon. Are you a councillor??

    44
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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:34 PM

    I’m not a councillor and I agree with him. I know a county councillor who puts in 20+ hrs per week. Their main job has to suffer as a result. I’m sure there are councillors out there that do little for their €20k. I don’t think €20k is excessive for a good councillor considering the hours that have to put in and the sacrifices that have to be made

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    Mute Colm
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    Jan 24th 2017, 2:09 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: Local Govt in a nutshell: unresourced local cllrs working full-time at something else and then expected to adequately hold to account unelected civil servants with near free reign to do as they please. We need to pay cllrs or have full-time regional representation, and once that is established crack down on expenses bonanzas like ‘educational’ conferences. Its ironic also that Dublin authorities, who afaik don’t pay for cllrs to attend such conferences, and where cllrs represent much larger populations, with all the complex problems a city generates, are being left out because the word ‘municipal’ was added to the name of electoral districts elsewhere. The Chairpersons of ‘municipal districts’ are also getting large additional payments that ‘local area committee’ chairs don’t get.

    For reference, the South East Local Area of Dublin City, where Dermot is 1 of 14 Cllrs, has a population about 3 times the size of Leitrim, which has 18. Those 18 are now getting pay increases.

    33
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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    Jan 24th 2017, 2:46 PM

    Tweety. If you think they are in it for the good of the people you are living cloud cuckoo land.

    31
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Jan 24th 2017, 3:39 PM

    “Unresourced”? Excuse us readers for thinking this was about increasing individual ‘resources’. Which they don’t have, of course. Also, I note that parking expenses are only an issue for city councillors serving their city. Ordinary citizens with one job never have any difficulty in finding parking, thanks to their efforts. Or not.

    10
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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Jan 24th 2017, 5:53 PM

    You would, if they only had to work one day a month and could hold down another full time job.

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    Mute Charliegrl80
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    Jan 24th 2017, 7:06 PM

    @Bernard Cantillon: about €30,000 and they get to keep the day job on top of being a councillor, plus all the family get the jobs that go with it.

    11
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    Mute Tea Hug
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    Jan 24th 2017, 7:12 PM

    It’s considered a part time job. Most of them (aside from SF and left ) are gainfully employed.

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    Mute mickmc
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:02 PM

    However useless anyone things TD are local councillors are as useful as tits on a bull.

    117
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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 24th 2017, 2:56 PM

    I’d suggest that tits on a bull are far more useful…

    43
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    Mute Paul Whyte
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:06 PM

    It seems in the last 6 months politicians have given themselves a pay increase, argued that giving pay restoration to public sector workers would bankrupt the country and have once again given themselves a pay increase.

    62
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    Mute Teddy
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    Jan 24th 2017, 12:59 PM

    “Reform local government” to save money,and then give them a pay rise so local government costs more money,

    62
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    Mute OnTheOutside
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:08 PM

    Firstly, they shouldn’t be doing it for the money. Secondly, they should stop sending out them, ‘newsletters’, full of cráp I don’t need to know about. Could easily be done online, if people want to know about it, then place an ad in a local paper or something.

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    Mute ballbreaker
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:15 PM

    These parasites are really making my blood boil…people facing losing their jobs and these clowns get pay rises…something seriously wrong with the people in this country…when these boys continue to milk us dry and we do nothing about it

    45
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    Mute Bobby Connolly
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:11 PM

    So Lacey thinks we “need real reform”. Agreed. He’s right. Let’s start by reducing the number of councillors by 50% in all city areas, and 25% in rural areas. Check out their expenses while we’re at it.

    43
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    Mute John B
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:02 PM

    So wait a second, the plan is to increase pay for those living in areas with a cost of living that I’m guessing is 30% less?

    If anything, rural councillors should get paid less.

    41
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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 24th 2017, 3:01 PM

    No, they shouldn’t get paid less. However, the minimum wage is the same wherever you go. Dole payments are the same wherever you go. Therefore, councillors’ wages should be the same wherever they are.

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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    Jan 24th 2017, 3:34 PM

    Brian O Dalaigh you do not get minimum wage on a C.E. scheme.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 24th 2017, 3:38 PM

    @ray.farrelly: I know that. Where in my postings suggest otherwise?

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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    Jan 24th 2017, 4:06 PM

    Brian O Dalaigh. You did say the minimum wage is the same where ever you go did you not.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 24th 2017, 4:11 PM

    I did. I never referenced CE schemes. What’s your point? What are you referencing?

    2
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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    Jan 24th 2017, 4:18 PM

    Brian O Dalaigh. I am not having a go at you merely pointing out you do not get minimum wage wherever you go.

    7
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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 24th 2017, 4:34 PM

    Yes, but that’s dependant on whatever scheme or employment mechanism you’re on. If you’re working outside of the DSP, then you are entitled to €9.25 per hour, irrespective of where you live. I’m not talking about whether it’s right or wrong. I’m just saying that the same minimum wage applies (for non-DSP-supported jobs) across the board. What I’m saying, basically, is that I don’t see why councillors outside of the major urban areas should have their pay increased. If standardised minimum national wage rates and standardised national dole rates apply, then standardised councillor rates should apply too.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 24th 2017, 4:36 PM

    PS: I’m not having a go at you either. I think we just got our wires crossed…

    3
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    Mute ray.farrelly
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    Jan 24th 2017, 4:37 PM

    Brian O Dalaigh. I agree.

    4
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    Mute Michael Clinton
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:17 PM

    €1,000 p/a for what !!!!!!! , They do sod all. It seems they spend all their time trying to raise rates and drive companies out of towns. Put pay parking everywhere and spend on ridiculous shite.

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    Mute Adrian
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:12 PM

    For what?

    33
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    Mute John Campbell
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:54 PM

    Just another group putting their hands deeper into the trough of public money.

    27
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    Mute Kieran OKeeffe
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:36 PM

    Don’t really have a problem with local politicians..it’s national politicians having local Clinics that pisses me off…let local councillors deal with local issues..

    22
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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 24th 2017, 3:03 PM

    I don’t have a problem with them having local clinics. It’s a great way to bring up national interests on a local level. Unfortunately, as you have alluded to, they are too often used for local issues that could be sorted by councillors.

    7
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    Mute Willy Malone
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:47 PM

    Trough is ever giving …

    22
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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Jan 24th 2017, 2:40 PM

    All about the money for Dermot Lacey,time for people to vote in change,get rid of present parasites.

    16
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    Mute DubKid
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    Jan 24th 2017, 1:35 PM

    So it’s not across the country then……..

    9
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    Mute Jim Hartnett
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    Jan 24th 2017, 6:19 PM

    Not that long ago there was a programme on TV exposing these politicians and their shennanigans, with some of them clearly corrupt in their actions. What sickened me at the time was the rush to defend them and as far as I can tell, not one of them lost their gravy train jobs. It was also apparent that for years many of them couldn’t fill out a declaration of interest form but were not found wanting when it came to filling out an expenses claim form.

    7
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    Mute Bill Clear
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    Jan 24th 2017, 6:42 PM

    Nothing stopping any of ye moaners from running for election next year. In my opinion they work very hard for not a lot of money. The senators. .now that’s a gravy train.

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    Mute Sean @114
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    Jan 24th 2017, 7:04 PM

    Yes they work very hard, all 40, yes 40, of them in DL/Rathdown. As for the likes of Councillor Hugh McElvaney and others like him. They just want loads of money. It’s a gravy train funded by the suckers who pay tax. EVERY expense should be vouched – full stop. More allowances on top of allowances.

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    Mute Linda Hughes
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    Jan 25th 2017, 12:17 AM

    God is there a strike looming? Go on i dare you! We will all back you …not! You have a cheek to moan about €1000 with the money your getting for doing fluke all …

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    Mute Charliegrl80
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    Jan 24th 2017, 7:01 PM

    Why do we need county councillors – they have no power anymore at one time you could go to them to get maybe a medical card or help with housing or the like the local authorities have had most of their works taken away. Most of the politicians in the Dail are more for the local than the national.

    1
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