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Just 63 rental properties within standard HAP rate available in June across Ireland

According to a new report, there were no properties available within standard HAP limits for a single person in June.

A NEW REPORT has found there was a 20% deterioration in just three months in the availability of affordable rental properties across the country, and a 27% deterioration in six months.

The quarterly Locked Out report from the Simon Communities of Ireland, published today, found there were 2,208 properties available to rent at any price within the 16 areas examined over the three dates (21, 22 and 23 June) surveyed.

This is down 20% from the 2,757 properties available in March. 

The June 2021 study found there were 906 properties available to rent within a standard or discretionary Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) limit in at least one of the four household categories examined,representing 41% of the total properties available.

This is a 14% decrease on the 1,055 properties which were available to rent within at least one HAP category in the December study.

HAP is a form of social welfare support for people who have a long-term housing need and it is available in all local authority areas. Local authorities pay landlords directly and tenants pay a weekly contribution to the local authority.

However rent must be within limits for the household type, for example the limit in Carlow for one adult in shared accommodation is €270 per month, while the limit for a couple with two children in Dublin is €1,275 per month.

Flexibility of up to 20% may be provided on a case-by-case basis of suitable accommodation cannot be found within these limits.

There were just 63 instances of those properties coming within a standard HAP rate in one of the four categories. The rest of the properties within HAP rates required the discretionary HAP top up.

A breakdown of the four household categories found:

Single persons: No properties were available within standard HAP limits for a single person. 78 properties were found within discretionary limits for single people.

Couples: 55 properties were available to rent within the standard HAP limits for a couple. 293 properties were available in this category within discretionary limits. This represented a significant decrease in available properties when 344 properties were available at the discretionary rate in March. The report said supply is overwhelmingly driven by Dublin.

Couple/one parent plus one child: Three properties were available for a couple/one parent and one child within standard HAP limits. A further 385 properties were found within discretionary limits, most of these located in Dublin (374 properties).

Couple/one parent plus two children: Five properties were available within standard HAP limits for a couple/one parent and two children. A further 466 properties were found within discretionary limits, with the vast majority of these located in the three Dublin areas (445).

The Simon Communities The Simon Communities

A new report from property website Daft.ie published this week also highlighted the increase in rents for residential properties by 5.6% nationally between April and June. rents are rising more quickly outside Dublin, the report noted.

The report today includes two case studies; one from a couple in their mid-thirties called Laura and Paddy and one from a 36-year-old single man called Jacob.

Laura and Paddy have been on their local authority housing list for over ten years and were in supported 24/7 temporary accommodation for two years. 

Recently they were given temporary accommodation with the local authority.

Both have experience addiction issues in the past and had been granted temporary accommodation because of serious issues they faced in homeless hostel settings that were damaging their recovery efforts. 

The report stated both have experienced poor mental health and the constant search for accommodation has had “a highly detrimental impact on their mental wellness”.

“The move to temporary accommodation from the hostel setting was only down to constant lobbying of the local authority by their key worker,” the report added.

“Both are still at risk of homelessness if they do not find rented accommodation for themselves soon.”

Laura and Paddy are approved for HAP, but they receive a smaller social welfare allowance as a couple than they would if they were two singles. They are still searching for accommodation every day but are “priced out of the property market”. 

They live in a small town and the charity said they have felt “a stigma attached to them due to their past experience of addiction”.

They have organised HAP forms for a rental property with their key worker, only to be told by the auctioneer that they are not interested, without even looking at their forms.

Jacob is currently living in transitionary accommodation after successfully completing an alcohol addiction programme. 

He should only have been at the transition house for six months – he has now been there for 18 months as he cannot find affordable private rental accommodation. 

“He cannot leave the transition house, as he has been advised that the only option would be to return to a high threshold temporary accommodation hostel where drug and alcohol use is very high,” the charity said.

“He is reliant on using the HAP payment. The HAP limits in his area do not reflect the realities of current market rates, so has been unable to find private rented accommodation. He has been on the housing list for ten years.”

Wayne Stanley, head of policy and communications at the Simon Communities of Ireland, said the ongoing tightening of supply and erosion of affordability in the private rental market will lead to increased homelessness. 

“HAP rates have to be addressed in the short term to keep people in their homes and support them out of homelessness,” he said.

“However, we cannot continue to chase rents and we need delivery of public housing.”

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44 Comments
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    Mute Paul Shepherd
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    Sep 21st 2021, 2:53 PM

    Are they sure it’s not 3034? After all, we have to allow for objections, cost over runs, missed deadlines, disputes and legal cases. 2034 seems a bit optimistic to me.

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    Mute Gerry from the Block
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    Sep 21st 2021, 2:55 PM

    @Paul Shepherd: Don’t forget the consultant fees. Please God will nobody think of the consultants fees?

    185
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    Mute Cormac Mckay
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:16 PM

    @Gerry from the Block: €100 million spent already!

    40
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    Mute The CFC Standard
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:05 PM

    Forget the MetroLink, build that white water rafting facility instead. Much better for Dublin City – who needs a direct link to the airport when you can just walk anyway? Better for the environment.

    99
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    Mute Disco Inferno
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:32 PM

    @The CFC Standard: government aren’t building that, city Council want to

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 7:46 AM

    @The CFC Standard: build both.

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    Mute Alex Marquis
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    Sep 21st 2021, 2:55 PM

    Typo here I’m afraid. Should read 2134.

    55
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    Mute Sean Stevenson
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:31 PM

    Ah yes, Irish government projects. Expect this to be pushed further back, and its cost to be octupled by the date it was set to have been completed originally. Also expect the electorate to do nothing about it but moan online because they’re too afraid to vote for an alternative government.

    56
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    Mute Adrian O'Donnell
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:54 PM

    Another major infrastructure project running well past due date and presumably well over budget? Who saw that one coming?

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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:32 PM

    Shambles

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    Mute Barry Teehan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:39 PM

    How difficult is it to run a train track to an airport Ffs.

    31
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    Mute Shaner Mac
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    Sep 21st 2021, 6:54 PM

    @Barry Teehan: Er, extremely difficult…

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    Mute Barry Teehan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:29 PM

    @Shaner Mac: The Brits and the French managed to build a 24 mile tunnel under the sea in 6 years. Could they not just build simple overhead tracks ?

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    Mute Shaner Mac
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:41 PM

    @Barry Teehan: Overhead tracks? Well no, there’s buildings, roads and, well, a city in the way. This is arguably more complicated as this has lots of stations. Politicians just need to grow a pair, ignore the naysayers and NIMBYs and get it done.

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:15 PM

    Just start digging, get the bore down and ready

    23
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    Mute caelan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:23 PM

    @Martin Sinnott: or a Luas line to the airport, sorted

    25
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    Mute Dan Morgan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:49 PM

    @caelan: wouldn’t have the capacity. Also, it’s about much more than the airport – it’s about linking swords to the city centre, via the airport, santry, ballymun, dcu & glasnevin.

    Think about how busy the existing luas lines are and neither of them have trip generators as big as swords of the airport.

    Also, even if it did have the capacity, we should be future proofing

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    Mute Longlin
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    Sep 21st 2021, 7:28 PM

    @caelan: Really think a long distance Luas line is a half measure. The Luas is fine for short trips crosslinking various parts of the city, but it is too slow for linking bigger outskirt towns like Swords to the city and also takes up valuable road space that could be used for bike and bus lanes as well as cars. I’ve been over in Tallaght at matches and when I looked it up it was quicker to get into town by Dublin bus than Luas. Hardly what we need to link the airport to town.

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    Mute Paul
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:40 PM

    Still waiting for the Bertie bowl

    20
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    Mute Patrick O'malley
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:32 PM

    Living opposite the M 50
    I cannot that no one ever thought of running a rail/ Luas type of system along side the motorway,with stations at where the train line runs underneath it at Clondalkin onto then Finglas then Ballymun with link to Airport from there.
    The planner’s in this country again missed out on a chance to build a modern and much needed multi link system
    The stops I mentioned could have lins to mainline rail into the city as well as serving the outskirts of this expanding City.

    17
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    Mute John Diamond
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:43 PM

    @Patrick O’malley: There was such a plan – it was called Metro West https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroLink_(Dublin)#Metro_West

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    Mute Cormac Harrington
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:33 PM

    Putting Ryan in as transport minister was always going to be a disaster. You think being leader of the Green Party he would be all for a metro. Not our Eamon, he would rather see the roads clogged with fumes from the buses and cars.

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    Mute Eddie O'Neill
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:17 PM

    We could do with clarity on a huge range of government issues, generally we get spin and outright lies, that’s how you keep the corruption under wraps.

    18
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    Mute Susan O'flaherty
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    Sep 21st 2021, 3:09 PM

    So they are putting in new upgrades but still not even starting the metro. Now wont be completed until 2034!!!!

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    Mute Raver
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:03 PM

    Just fecking build it

    18
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    Mute Cormac Mckay
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:14 PM

    Metrolink is obsolete! It’s not good value for money! We can do better with developments and advancements in transport technology and the alternative could serve the whole city not just one single route/line http://www.thedublinloop.ie Don’t be surprised later this year when BusCONnects gets refused planning permission from An Bord Pleanála because of the poor quality of cycling infrastructure! We need to put the majority of all traffic underground!

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:22 PM

    @Cormac Mckay: I remember this Dublin loop and it makes sense

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    Mute Shaner Mac
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    Sep 21st 2021, 6:53 PM

    @Cormac Mckay: Why do you keep pedalling that nonsense?

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 8:53 AM

    @Cormac Mckay: that link is very short of specifics, except full pedestrianisation

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    Mute Search Eagle
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    Sep 21st 2021, 9:03 PM

    They won’t have put down a single track in 2034 either. Nothing to do with COVID, or funds, or even local objections… Irish politicians are simply incapable of building public transport, instead choosing to let Irish Rail play with the legacy British Victorian railway they inherited. This is just the latest rotten batch who aren’t up to it. They proudly continue the legacy of wasted hundreds of millions of our money on consultants, PDFs, delay tactics, and waffle. Many of us knew that when Metro North was scrapped (by LEO VARADKAR) and came back to life as Metrolink, they weren’t serious about building it. Governments that are serious about infrastructure don’t scrap plans and keep re-designing it until the end of time. Time-wasters dither and plan. Doers, do.

    It is beyond absurd that in a few weeks time, when the peasants are treated to the reveal of the castrated, shredded National Development Plan, GREEN PARTY MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT EAMON MICHAEL RYAN will be presenting a climate strategy whose first move is to cancel all public transit investment for the next 20 years and divvy out the cash to some motorways. Carbon tax, congestion tax, mega high fuel taxes for the privilege of sitting in traffic.

    And the plans being scrapped aren’t even ambitious. We’re talking about a single, simple basic metro line and the electrification of some existing infrastructure. Basic infrastructure that should have been built in the 70′s when it was first announced. DART+ doesn’t come with the underground tunnel, nor does it even provide any stations. And even that’s beyond our capabilities to consider doing before 2034++.

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    Mute James
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    Sep 21st 2021, 11:01 PM

    @Search Eagle: surely the eu should just step in and run this country and put in the proper infrastructure across the country that it deserves.we have never been capable of governing ourselves here.

    8
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    Mute Paul Cunningham
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:15 PM

    Maybe they are basing it off Metro 2033 and Metro 2034, or playing the games to get an idea of what it will look like within a year of allowing the scobes and young lads in Canada Goose bomber jackets onto it.

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    Mute Anto H
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    Sep 21st 2021, 4:27 PM

    This government is the BESTEST EVER!

    9
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    Mute Ro-your-nan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 6:00 PM

    Ooooh good, about the same time as the next DART is due

    6
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    Mute Tim Quigley
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:13 PM

    Eamonn Ryan has. Green TD in Fingal. Seldom heard of and seems to have no interest in Metro.

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    Mute Hugh Mc Donnell
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:13 PM

    Well at this rate it doesn’t bode well for the navan rail line with the announcement due soon

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    Mute john smith iv
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 8:49 AM

    The Chinese will build 5 new cities in the meantime with 40 new metros.

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    Mute Robert Byrne
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    Sep 21st 2021, 5:31 PM

    Why am I not surprised? Could it be the fact we have inept, self-serving politicians? Or… is it the bureaucratic process that is at fault? Maybe it is because no-one in charge has the ability to coordinate and plan?

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    Mute Genera L Consensus
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    Sep 21st 2021, 10:30 PM

    Add a few more Billion onto the invoices lads

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Sep 21st 2021, 11:15 PM

    i think Ireland missed a massive opportunity in the past year and a half to push ahead with so much of the admin and planning works for projects like Metro – i know we werent near being able to get actual construction yet – but all the bodies who were ‘working from home on full pay could easily have progressed with the planning of major projects like this – same with some essential works – i despair driving around Dublin these days looking the the number of cones and roadworks – the Germans designated roadworks and maintenance works essential and brought forward planned works to maximise the opportunity of having low or no traffic thru busy cities like Berlin – we of course didn’t bother use our brains at all and are now watching all city centre grind to a halt as backlog of construction and maintenance works get done …we are so annoying in ireland sometimes

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Sep 21st 2021, 8:13 PM

    There are not enough spurs off both green and red. This would be a start and would increase capacity. There is no reason for every tram to travel cross city. Why is the Shelbourne hotel stop not ever used for example

    1
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    Mute Thomas Smyth
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    Sep 22nd 2021, 1:15 AM

    How government plans, organises and tenders large projects needs a complete overhaul. There’s so much red tape. Some of it makes sense to avoid corruption. But the delays mean that it takes so long that the plans change drastically between governments. Whole stations have been built for this metro that will never be used. The other side is the tenders go to the lowest bidder, who then hammers the government on everything to inflate costs. Look at the Children’s Hospital. And unsuccessful bidders then bring frivolous lawsuits against the government causing further delays. Something you’d never see in the private sector. The government need to outsource the whole process to a third party that can get in the weeds. Maybe on a rolling contact. Like how the Luas is run.

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    Mute The Firestarter
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    Sep 21st 2021, 10:44 PM

    It’s been delayed since the 90s, so what’s another 7 years. Funny thing is the Irish built most of the UK and America, yet they’re incapable of doing it at home, says it all really about the way this country is run.

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    Mute Brian Haines
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    Sep 21st 2021, 9:27 PM

    Dublin airport and surrounding population centres would be better served with hydrogen cell powered buses using upgraded orbital road infrastructure that already exists. The global carbon footprint of another white elephant LUAS style project could be avoided, no CPOs, no army of consultants and lawyers.

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    Mute Search Eagle
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    Sep 21st 2021, 10:22 PM

    @Brian Haines: The Luas has been a massive success, though. Expensive, late, but ultimately a showcase of how people will use good quality transit when provided. Too successful for its own good. The Green Line before COVID was beginning to fall to pieces under the strain.

    There’s no avoiding CPOs, consultants and lawyers if we want to get meaningful infrastructure built, even for our bus systems or using electric vehicles. Bus Connects Dublin (and latterly Cork) represent the painful outlay required to reconfigure our cities, towns and villages for walking, cycling, and bus. Somehow through the painful public consultations and some rather daft initial proposals, a half-decent compromise has resulted. So expect that to hit the shredders soon too.

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