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TDs during the vote in the Dáil this afternoon. Oireachtas

Government wins confidence motion in the Dáil by 86 votes to 67

Green TD Neasa Hourigan, who voted against the government over the eviction ban last week, was among those to vote confidence in the government.

LAST UPDATE | 29 Mar 2023

THE GOVERNMENT HAS survived a confidence motion.

86 TDs voted in favour of the government’s motion of confidence that was tabled after Labour sought to table a no-confidence motion.

Green TD Neasa Hourigan, who voted against the government over the eviction ban last week, was among those to vote confidence in the government this afternoon.

Hourigan was expelled from the party for 15 months as a result of her vote last week against the government.

67 TDs voted no confidence in the government.

Earlier this month, Cabinet decided to end the eviction ban from 31 March as was initially planned, despite some initial speculation that it might be extended.

Speaking in the Dáil this morning during the debate, Varadkar said that “if the opposition is successful in winning this vote, it would mean Dáil Eireann would be dissolved tonight”

“There’d be an election in April sometime, the Dáil would not meet until May and it might well be into the summer before we’d have an elected Government,” said Varadkar.

He added that is was “profoundly disingenuous” of Labour to bring forward the motion knowing “the eviction moratorium would lapse on 31 March anyway and no new primary legislation could be passed to deal with the housing crisis for several months”.

Varadkar claimed the Labour motion is an example of “political theatre” and “performance art”.

He added that the motion is about “competition for attention on the opposition benches”.   

Elsewhere, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe hit out at Labour’s conference pledge to build“one million homes in 10 years”.

Donohoe said he listened to this “with a sense of worry” and asked on “what land, with what workers, and with what money” would these homes be built. 

‘Low targets missed’

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald meanwhile accused the government of turning a “housing crisis into a housing emergency into a housing disaster”.

She added that their record is one of “low targets set, low targets missed” and that “instead of building houses, the government poured billions into the private rental market”. 

McDonald added: “Nero fiddles, while Rome burns.”

The Sinn Féin leader also claimed Varadkar has “zero regard” for the sense of “hopelessness” that those served with notices of termination feel. 

“Housing can be fixed, but only a change of government will solve this housing crisis,” said McDonald, “and we in Sinn Féin wish to lead that government.”

McDonald finished by saying that the government was “out of ideas, out of touch, out of time” and called for a general election.

Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly described the eviction ban as the “only protection in place against homeless” and added that teachers are “being driven to Australia” because many can’t afford rental prices in Ireland. 

Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who had tabled the no-confidence motion, said it was Varadkar who was “engaged in some political theatrics and performative anger”.

She said the lifting of the eviction ban will be “disastrous” and the “wrong choice”.

“Your policy has failed and that’s why we have tabled a motion of no confidence, it is a responsible thing to do given the scale of the catastrophe facing us,” said Bacik.

There were somewhat heated scenes in the Dáil when Green Party leader Eamon Ryan accused the opposition of failing to acknowledge the “safety nets” that had been enacted to coincide with the ending of the eviction ban, such as the expansion of the tenant in situ scheme.

“Let’s not just say slogans, let’s not play politics with housing, let’s work on real solutions,” said Ryan. 

Justice Minister Simon Harris also accused Labour TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin of “wagging” his finger at him.

“You’re not a múinteoir anymore, you don’t need to wag your finger at me,” Harris said to Ó Ríordáin. 

Harris also accused Ó Ríordáin of objecting to “more homes than any other member of Dáil Éireann. 

Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl said the debate was a “disgrace” with “constant heckling and interruption”.

“Respect the people that sent us here and are watching this debate,” he added.

‘Time is running out’

Holly Cairns, leader of the Social Democrats, said there will be “more votes of no confidence” if today’s motion fails because “time is running out for this government”.

“The people lost confidence in this government a long time ago and it is not coming back,” said Cairns.

She added: “Every day we hear the same attempts to spin failure into success. Somehow weakness becomes tenacity, delay becomes urgency, defeat becomes victory.”

Cairns also said that ending the eviction ban will “increase homelessness”, but claimed that the “government doesn’t seem to care”. 

Cairns also hit out at Green Party leader Eamon Ryan for describing the tenant in situ scheme as a “safety net”. 

“Does the government actually know how safety nets work? It’s supposed to be in place before you fall,” said Cairns. 

She added that “most tenants don’t have a hope of being able to afford their rental homes”.

“In case the Green Party didn’t seem to know,” said Cairns, ” house prices are at record highs.”

People Before Profit TD and spokesperson on housing Richard Boyd Barrett said: “No matter how much they try to spin it, this debate is happening because you have taken the cruel and cold-hearted decision to allow thousands of people to be evicted from next Saturday”.

Fellow People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said people affected by the ending of the eviction ban should remain in place if they have no where else to go, and appeal to the Residential Tenancies Board.

“Do not make yourself homeless. Threshold said yesterday that over half of all notices to quit that they see are invalid,” said Murphy.

“Even if the eviction notice is valid, you should still not leave your home if you have nowhere to go. You should inform your landlord that you will not be leaving and continue to pay your rent,” he added.

Deputy Mick Barry then called on TDs to “evict this government, not the renters”.

Barry also said that US actor Will Smith will forever be remembered for “socking [Chris Rock] on the jaw” at the Oscars last year, and claimed that ending the eviction ban is this government’s “Will Smith moment” of “sheer, unadultered, fecking madness”. 

Varadkar had previously refuted the impact that ending the eviction ban would have on homelessness levels, telling reporters that notices to quit are not the sole reason people end up homeless.

“It’s not simply people who’ve had a notice to quit served on them. If you look at the last couple of months, when the number of people in emergency accommodation has increased every month and there was an eviction ban in place, what were the reasons?” he said.

“It was family breakdown, it was all sorts of different other issues as to why people look for emergency accommodation – increasing numbers of families and people from overseas as well seeking emergency accommodation.”

Yesterday evening, Sinn Féin tabled legislation to attempt to extend the eviction ban until 31 January 2024.

The bill, which used the same wording as the Government’s eviction ban, was brought forward by Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin.

Speaking yesterday, Ó Broin had appealed to Independent TDs to vote to extend the ban, despite a previous motion on the matter failing last week.

“The reason why we tabled the bill today is because we wanted to give every member of the old era and a very simple opportunity to state clearly and categorically through a vote of legislation as to whether they were in favour of extending this crucial protection for renters, or whether they were going to vote to increase homelessness,” Ó Broin told the Dáil.

The previous motion was defeated by 83 votes to 68 votes.

However, Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan opted to vote against the Government and has since been suspended from the parliamentary party for the next 15 months.

-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:24 PM

    Say what you like about the government, but my opinion is that they have done a great job of keeping what is probably an anadequate ICU system from coming under too much pressure.

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    Mute michal heba
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:25 PM

    @thomas patrick: well, they did what the rest of the world did. Copy paste style of a job. No big achievement in that, people of Ireland did great job

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    Mute Peter McGlynn
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:30 PM

    @thomas patrick: given their handling of health portfolio over 8 years they’ve had to be cautious.

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:37 PM

    @michal heba: oh yeah? So why did they have to close car parks and walkways after a few weeks?
    The people of ireland were doing a great job of ignoring social distancing guidelines until they were strictly policed.

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:39 PM

    @Peter McGlynn: agreed…. but in this instance I think the results have been as positive as we could have hoped for as a people. And that’s not to disrespect people who lost loved ones.. but it could have been a lot worse

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    Mute michal heba
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:52 PM

    @thomas patrick: there is always some element of no cooperation… But in general its people and front staff did all the work. Politicians are still free to travel in government fleet etc.

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    Mute Pád
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:00 PM

    @thomas patrick:
    Don’t think the government done that. More likely it was the medical profession.

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:21 PM

    @Pád: yep . The medical profession provided the advice and the government acted. Not like Mr. Orange across the water.
    I’m only trying to inject a little bit of positivity in a place where it’s easy to bash people. Do any of us think we’d do a better job? Or even put ourselves forward for the job in the first place? I dont think so.
    And yes, absolute credit to the heroes on the front line more than anyone else

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    Mute Derek Poutch
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:29 PM

    @thomas patrick: Could of been a lot better too.

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:12 PM

    @thomas patrick: On what basis have they done a great job? Only by looking at the media spun faux comparisons of Italy and UK. When you compare with most similar European countries or the likes of New Zealand you see what could have been possible with an effective strategy and some leadership. We fell some way short. We’ve done ok but it’s been in the absence of adequate leadership.

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:25 PM

    @thomas patrick: What’s the relevance in comparing us to a continent of 330 million people and a totally different social set up? I don’t see it positive to constantly say we are doing somewhat better than the couple countries that have plundered globally and that have much larger denser populations. Why not look at what’s possible in the majority of Western European / Scandinavian countries or other similar island nations like New Zealand and believe we can do much better.

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:50 PM

    @thomas patrick: we are an island, we could have done way better. We could have achieved the same as NZ or Australia. The “Orange One” has a lower death per capita rate than us, and when this blows over you want someone like the “Orange One” to get your economy going full tilt and roaring again – he has a business head and those types will be nearly as important as the front line workers fighting this crisis in the certain recession ahead.

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    Mute Gerald OBrien
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:12 PM

    @Daniel Dunne: Comparing NZ or the Aussies to Ireland is apples and oranges. They have very different flight traffic to a country like Ireland. They could be doing better, but the metric you have there isnt a good one. If you compare us to countries who do have similar traffic were doing pretty well. Equal to Netherlands, better than the UK for example. We’re way behind Germany, but when aren’t they the best at stuff like that in fairness. Credit where credits due.

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    Mute Gerald OBrien
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:18 PM

    @Gerald OBrien: Also if you do the math America 328,000,000(population) / 67,000(deaths) = 4,800. So 1 death every 4,800. Ireland 4,900,000(population) / 1265(deaths) = 3873. Last time I checked 3873 is less than 4,800

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    Mute FecklessBear
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:22 PM

    @Gerald OBrien: Amsterdam and London are major global air travel hubs. How exactly does Ireland have similar flight traffic to the Netherlands and the UK?
    And you can bet Australia and NZ have far more frequent flights from China.
    You’re talking nonsense.

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    Mute Paul O Neill
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:43 PM

    @Gerald OBrien: your correct in saying we can’t compare to Aus & NZ as it’s been summer over there whilst it’s been winter in this part of the world, also Dublin airport is a major hub with 33 million passing through last year, add to that the school tours to Northern Italy, Cheltenham has effected us and also the Liverpool matches tying us in with the UK more than the rest so we equally can’t be compared to Scandinavia

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    Mute Jun Stone
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    May 3rd 2020, 7:16 AM

    @thomas patrick: I agree, I think they did a brilliant job!

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 3rd 2020, 8:53 AM

    @Gerald OBrien: lol. Similar traffic to London?

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    Mute Mairead Jenkins
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:24 PM

    That’s really good news. Now they need to get the health service back up and running generally, and start treating people in some of the 100s of empty beds.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:32 PM

    @Mairead Jenkins: no one is stopping any one from attending the hospital where needed. It would seem in the past that a lot of people attending A&E, don’t need to.

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    Mute Mairead Jenkins
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:57 PM

    @Jim Buckley Barrett: I agree with you re A and E. What I meant was the horrendous waiting lists. Good chance to start tackling them with so much spare capacity plus very high availability of beds in all the private hospitals.

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    Mute Andy Harding
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:23 PM

    Thank god it on the way down I’m beginning to feel like Anna Frank at this stage .

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    Mute Charles Alexander
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:49 PM

    @Andy Harding: seriously???

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    Mute Alan McDonald
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:43 PM

    @Andy Harding: Did she also spell your name wrong?

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    Mute Geraldine Glynn
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:27 PM

    Wonderful news. Couldnt be more welcome and needed.
    Full marks and our gratitude to the government and advisors for the tireless efforts.

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    Mute Derek Poutch
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:31 PM

    @Geraldine Glynn: Are you David,s wife, sister or mother even.

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    Mute Geraldine Glynn
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:18 PM

    @Derek Poutch: None of your business. My private life is not open to you or anyone else to question.

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    Mute FecklessBear
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:25 PM

    @Derek Poutch: defo lol..

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    Mute Karllye kripton
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:35 PM

    Thank you for some good news

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    Mute Jim O Brien Tech
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:27 PM

    Number of test said be be 100K last week didn’t happen no answers… 169K tested in total..

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    Mute Dell
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:37 PM

    @Jim O Brien Tech: I think every country is having issues around testing and the availability of staff and resources to do so, but at over 34000 tests per million population, we have actually tested a lot more than most countries.

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    Mute Jim O Brien Tech
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:45 PM

    @Dell: Noted however harris has promised more than once he would get to a level of testing when he has not so why keep telling people different when it is not possible

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    Mute Dell
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:50 PM

    @Jim O Brien Tech: he can’t see into the future

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    Mute Dell
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:55 PM

    @Jim O Brien Tech: also he can only go on the information he is being given by the people in the hse or the labs

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    Mute albhbc
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    May 3rd 2020, 6:35 AM

    @Dell: higher death rate also.

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    Mute Dean
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:08 PM

    That’s good. Hoping nurses get the pay rise they were promised last year.

    A clap for frontline workers, but an instant pay rise for TDs.

    Imagine if nurses held their ground on negotiations during this pandemic, because they’re in demand. That’s capitalism, right? But nurses are not as immoral as businesses or FG’s neoliberal policies.

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    Mute Steve O'Reilly
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    May 3rd 2020, 3:32 AM

    @Dean: the unfortunate thing Dean is that this government is currently throwing billions of euros at the economy and health system to keep everything afloat. This will have to be paid back. I can’t see any pay rises for anyone in that industry unfortunately. And I’m not looking forward to our next budget.

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    Mute Peter Denham
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:39 PM

    This might be, depressingly, what was needed to show this spoofer that the health system is a mess.

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    Mute David Hughes
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    May 2nd 2020, 9:42 PM

    This is interesting. Does anyone know how many people have died while in ICU? One would assume that if diagnosed with Covid-19 which then became serious resulting in hospitalisation and subsequent transfer to ICU, that most of our 1,200+ deaths should have occurred by that sequence/route. This does not appear to have been the case. It appears that the vast majority of our Covid deaths never made it to ICU and possibly never even made it to hospital. Or I am I missing something somewhere…..

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    Mute Hundredth Idiot
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    May 2nd 2020, 9:55 PM

    @David Hughes: frail people aren’t put on ventilators in ICU because the outcomes aren’t good for them, i.e. it’s an intervention that doesn’t work. Nothing to do with capacity, it’s the same in normal times. So there’s lots of deaths outside of ICU.

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    Mute David Hughes
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    May 2nd 2020, 11:58 PM

    @Hundredth Idiot: Thank you. So those that are deemed to be too frail are not given the chance of life as their possible outcomes are not good – in order to make room for the potential intake of Covid 19 cases? The ICU numbers that have died seem very low in comparison with the national figure

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    Mute Hundredth Idiot
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    May 3rd 2020, 2:56 AM

    @David Hughes: No, you’re fundamentally misunderstanding. There is no capacity issue, there is no “not being given the chance of life”. ICU isn’t the most appropriate place for many frail patients. It’s a clinical decision. Google “clinical frailty scale” and COVID-19.

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    Mute John John
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:17 PM

    And zero covid19 in the 2 Galway hospitals ICU

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