Russia - threadbanned users in OP

That'll be the aontu and national party voters. Not too many pay much attention to those clowns.

Marine le pen saying she would like to see closer ties between NATO and Russia.

Pretty sure if she gets into power it's going to be every nation for itself. She clearly has no backbone either .

Wasn't even aware there was a thread. The Ukrainians that were already living here have done massive unofficial work of getting them housed. In no small part to themselves already being respected hard working members of their communities. A member of my own family has taken 4 in via this unofficial route. The kids are already attending the local schools.

I've no interest in visiting that thread. As with all online forums they can very much give a misrepresentative view of wider public opinion. No more than this thread or any other one.

Which was my point: the impressionable types on Twitter/Facebook/wherever are exposed to these talking points via bots and they latch on to them. Then they float around and get amplified in their respective echo chambers.

Zelenskyy once again appealing for heavier weapons. Give it a retweet and a like there lads and lasses; who knows, maybe Scholz is an avid Tweeter:

That's exactly what it was referring to, @ronivek. When I was in school in Austria, the country had only fully joined the EU a few years earlier, and there were loads of discussions still ongoing around whether the EU constituted a military alliance for example. What's more, Austria has been hosting NATO nations for peace-keeping exercises or courses on helicopter operations on mountainous areas, and there's always a huge amount of discussion when for example US Army Black Hawks suddenly turn up in places like Aigen or Allentsteig.

She's nothing more than Putins fluffer.

Our Russian friends are not happy with Japan at all (seems the move to denote the Azov Batallion as not being a terrorist outfit has greatly angered them).

Part of the problem here is that Ukrainian refugees are not "homeless" and trying to conflate the issue of accepting refugees into the country from a war zone and that of domestic homelessness is a complete distortion by the Irish far right.

These are two completely different subjects and need to be dealt with differently. Announcing that the country is "full" and we cannot accept any more refugees from Ukraine seems preposterous. What other country in the EU has even attempted this argument in recent weeks? Yes, accepting tens of thousands of refugees will put huge strains on resources, housing and the economy and the months ahead will be very difficult but I don't see the alternative. Also, our existing numbers of refugees and asylum seekers are very low by European standards.

The far right have their head up their arse. This is the same people shouting about the lack of staff down their local shopping centre cafe or pub yet give out when there's a need to import labour to fill it . Nothing but a bunch of blaggards.

Most of them probably giving out shite about the size of the queues in Dublin airport as they fanny off to Spain on their bi yearly jaunt to the sun.

I've no truck with that shite. And no truck with people who parrott the how do we pay for it . The same way we pay for anything else. There's a global financial system were part of the EU borrowing is an all time low.

The same people giving out this shite have sons and daughters in Australia and canada and wherever.

The world doesn't stop Wibbs. It's evolving we adapt we live through it. All you can hope is you were good to others and they were good to you whilst you were here.

Meanness kills you off early and is an awful way to exist.

looks like Russia is about to get a whole lot of Nato on her borders--

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin says her country will decide whether to apply to join Nato "within weeks".

She said she saw no reason to delay the decision, at a joint news conference alongside Sweden's prime minister.

Her comments coincided with a report to the Finnish parliament that said membership of the bloc could result in "increased tensions on the border between Finland and Russia".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61093302

There are 65,000 holiday homes. The EU just released €3.5b for helping countries accommodate refugees, and in addition to that:

"OTTAWA, ON, April 9, 2022 /CNW/ - The "Stand Up for Ukraine" global pledging event and campaign has raised 9.1 billion euros ($12.4 billion) for people fleeing the Russian invasion, inside Ukraine and abroad, including €1 billion from the European Commission.

On top of that, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has announced an additional €1 billion in loan to cover the needs of the people displaced by the invasion.

Out of these €10.1 billion in pledges and EBRD funding, €1.8 billion are for internally displaced persons and €8.3 billion for refugees in frontline EU Member States and countries, like Moldova."

Where there's a will, there's a way. Irelands problem lies in the will department.

Is that going to go away ? Weve also one of the fastest growth in Europe and no one to fill various jobs.

Has Ireland ground to a halt because our national debt is large ?

It's a handy catch all out for anyone that just wants to say sure look how much money we owe. So what ?...

There isn't a nation on earth that doesn't owe something..credit rotates the planet. We borrow we pay we live we grow etc yada yada yada.

I'll sleep content that Ireland didn't shirk it's responsibilities as a country. We pray on being welcoming worldly and have an absolute huge diaspora. But then you have blaggards spout the absolute opposite. Zzzz

May as well get Dev back and shut up shop