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EU commissioner for crisis management Hadja Lahbib exhibiting items from the survival kit. X/@hadjalahbib

The EU wants us all to have 72-hour 'survival kits' to hand (possibly in a large handbag)

The kits have been unveiled amid growing geopolitical tensions in Europe.

EU MEMBER STATES are being asked to develop 72-hour “survival” kits as part of new emergency plans.

It’s part of the bloc’s Preparedness Union Strategy, which sets out responses to various crises, ranging from natural disasters to state-sponsored hybrid attacks.

It comes as the EU recently unveiled a plan to upscale collective member state defence spend to over €800 billion.

Brussels would like every citizen to be equipped for 72 hours of self-sufficiency, EU crisis management commissioner Hadja Lahbib said. 

The move is in line with a key report last year on strengthening Europe’s civilian and military preparedness.

The proposed survival kits will consist of items like bottled water, energy bars and a flashlight as part of a wider effort to “foster a culture of resilience” among member states, and Brussels is urging citizens to proactively partake in the move.

“Knowing what to do in case of danger, gaming out different scenarios, that’s also a way to prevent people from panicking,” said Lahbib, recalling shelves being emptied of toilet paper in the early days of the Covid pandemic.

Households would be urged to stock up on a dozen key items including matches and ID documents in a waterproof pouch as part of their “resilience” kit.

“All of this comes in addition to national strategies,” Lahbib said. “It’s about better coordinating, supporting member states in their strategies.”

She unveiled the kit in a rather exuberant video posted to X, the tone of which was criticised by some users on the platform as being like a “joke”.

In the post, Lahbib enthusiastically sells the idea while exhibiting a pair of glasses, matches, a waterproof pouch for documents and a Swiss army knife, among other items.

She withdraws the items from a large handbag, while giving a running commentary to the camera. 

The new strategy draws on the recommendations of a report presented to the European Commission by Finland’s former president Sauli Niinisto late last year.

It also takes inspiration from the example of Scandinavia, where Finland, Sweden and Denmark have all stepped up efforts to prepare households for the possibility of a future crisis or conflict – as Ukraine fights the grinding three-year Russian invasion.

In a letter to EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, three lawmakers from the European Parliament’s centrist group Renew urged the commission to go further by sending a handbook to every household in the bloc on preparing for “various crises, from potential conflict to climate disasters, pandemics and cyberthreats”.

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    Mute Steve
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 6:52 AM

    The government simply should have seperate laws for corporate landlords like in this situation versus independent landlords who are in a completely different situation and who absolutely should not be compared.

    An individual landlord selling a single property is completely different to a corporate landlord selling an entire block of flats and evicting everyone all at once. They are two completely different kettles of fish, yet almost everyone on here will mix the two together as though they are exactly the same thing.

    Independent landlords need a right to use their property as they see fit whilst respecting notice periods and existing tenant rights, just like in every other European country (I live in continental Europe and know).

    However, different rules should apply if a company owns an entire appartment block. I can’t understand why everything is always lumped in together in the rage machine that is today’s world. Can common sense please apply.

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    Mute WiseUp
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 8:11 AM

    @Steve: Exactly

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    Mute 9QRixo8H
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 4:39 PM

    @Steve:
    A landlord is what a landlord does; have other people buy them free houses.

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    Mute James Delaney
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:04 PM

    @Steve: great comment so true

    43
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    Mute Chris Gaffney
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:32 PM

    @Steve: And what about a private landlord with maybe 4 or 5 apartments. Which group does he or she go into??

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    Mute Tim Thethird O'Hanrahan
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 9:21 PM

    @9QRixo8H: Very True!

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    Mute Aidan Walsh
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 4:31 AM

    @Chris Gaffney: Small private landlord. A Corporate landlord pays corporate taxes which are f’all.

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    Mute Patrick Clancy
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 7:38 AM

    I was a landlord but I needed the house for returning family so of course different rules should apply for single Landlords .

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    Mute Michael McLoughlin
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:10 PM

    Young fit & able James O’Toole has a part-time job and demands Dublin 8 location while full-time workers are commuting in from Louth, Meath, Kildare, Wicklow and areas of Dublin. He talks about being removed from the housing list for earning too much so now he is part-time.

    O’Tooles wife demands that Dublin City Corporation buy the property and rent to the existing tenants. Maybe that’s right or maybe that is wrong. There are students who work more hours than James O’Toole. Is he too good to commute?

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    Mute Jonny Parkinson
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 9:23 AM

    @Michael McLoughlin: it’s easy to fall into this thinking but there are requirements in big cities for low paid workers. Who is going to work cleaning or stocking shelves in Dublin City if it’s unaffordable for those low paid workers to live? These are the working poor who need government support to provide them with housing. They are doing the right thing but the conditions around them are pushing them into poverty. If they move down the country n commute yes their rent reduces but now they have to run a car n spend 3 hours a day in the car. Which is probably even worse way to live.

    We are at full employment and we are importing people are a very quick rate at the moment add to the housing problem. Our economy is running too hot to match our ability to build the infrastructure to cope.

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    Mute Michael Costello
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 9:19 AM

    I think the corporate landlords have being sorting out the Government’s housing headache for years. They bought the land , they got the builders , they got the job done. As we all know , if you have someone sorting out a problem for you, you bury your head and leave them to it. This day was always going to come. It’s not right , it’s not nice but it’s not illegal. The housing crisis in Ireland is not the landlords , be they private or corporate , fault. Governments past and present are using the emotions and anger of tenants against landlords to cover their own failings for this crisis. So by all means protest against the corporate landlords but let’s equally if not louder protest against the government.

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    Mute Liam Mc Meel
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 9:45 AM

    1yr notice is loads of time to find somewhere to live not 8months

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 1:01 PM

    @Liam Mc Meel: You can’t be serious. On top of having cancer treatment? When there are no affordable places to rent? If you can’t help the people involved, there’s no point in preaching to people in an impossible situation who would love to have a less stressful option.

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    Mute Aidan Walsh
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 4:29 AM

    @Liam Mc Meel: It took me 18 months + the time given of 6 months to find a place. 2 years.

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    Mute Denis Rathsallagh Brady
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 11:30 AM

    I was homeless i wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

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    Mute Gavin
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 2:32 PM

    This utter clown O’toole is a pbp extreme leftist who advocates for open borders and mass immigration and then refuses to acknowledge the self evident link between it and the housing/ rental crisis.He,as an individual,deserves the consequences of his own warped ideology.

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    Mute TheQueenofHibernia
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 2:23 PM

    Good luck to the group. The battle against Corporate Landlords is only beginning. No one should be allowed to profit from basic human needs.

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    Mute Denis Ryan
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:16 PM

    @TheQueenofHibernia: Food is a basic human need, should farmers have to sell their product for cost price? How would they and their families survive?

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    Mute Chris Gaffney
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:35 PM

    @TheQueenofHibernia: So no more private rentals. Good luck with that one!!

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    Mute Robert Halvey
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 11:52 AM

    Ffg have created the idea that we the citizens have no power .the truth is a little bit more complicated, there are several way to remove rot,

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    Mute Yvon Queguiner
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 4:28 PM

    After June 2, call them squatters.

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    Mute Lina Stein
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:07 PM

    @Yvon Queguiner: not if they still pay rent

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    Mute Earth Traveller
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:39 PM

    ‘… relocate to counties such as Meath or Dundalk’. Where’s County Dundalk?

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    Mute Fr. Fintan Stack
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 6:36 PM

    @Earth Traveller: It’s a little over 30Km north of county Drogheda

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    Mute Paul
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 3:04 PM

    What people fail to realise is that landlords cannot evict tenants, nor can the RTB.
    A landlord can issue a notice of termination, and the rtb can issue a determination order
    Only bailiffs appointed by a District Court can enforce an order of eviction.
    If these tenants refuse to comply with the landlords Notice to Quit, then it’s about 2 years before a DC can make an eviction order.

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    Mute Roger Bond
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 4:10 PM

    @Paul: This is why there is so little investment in rental properties compared to other countries.
    Your investment is subject to abuse by tenants and red tape by the legal system.

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    Mute Martin C
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 11:07 AM

    Counties like meath and dundalk!!lazy typo’s again be better journal writers!

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    Mute Martin O Connell
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 5:29 PM

    Spicebag!!! Ballbag is more appropriate.

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    Mute Sham Rogue
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 10:24 PM

    The coporatisation of property was invited here by Fine Gael and Michael Noonan. The corporates pay no tax on their profits unlike small single property landlords and they hold the market to ransome with bulk lettings. It is time we cap the number of properties these corporates can own and stop the downward spiral back to the absentee landlords of the 19th century. Did we give the Brits the boot one hundred years ago just so the Canadian /American vulture funds can own our property and extort our citizens today ??

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    Mute TheQueenofHibernia
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 6:44 PM

    Denis Ryan. No. Farmers ought to be able to make a living from the sale of from products. What do you say about supermarkets that have made enormous profits from distributing and marketing the produce of farmers?

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    Mute Denis Ryan
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    Apr 22nd 2023, 8:24 PM

    @TheQueenofHibernia: Ah pet, don’t you know how to post on the same thread. Stop moving the goalposts, you said that housing was a human right and shouldn’t be profited off. I respond with food as a base level of human need and the need for profit so that food will be produced. Why move the subject onto supermarkets.

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    Mute Paul Newsome
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 7:29 AM

    A young, non European, non Irish asylum seeker who took the Irish Govt. because he was denied access to accommodation, food, care won his case in an Irish Court this week. So why are Irish Citizens not entitled to the same protections and Rights laid down by the E.U. Charter..
    The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union brings together the most important personal freedoms and rights enjoyed by citizens of the EU into one legally binding document. The Charter was declared in 2000, and came into force in December 2009 along with the Treaty of Lisbon.

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    Mute Paul Newsome
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 8:00 AM

    Between 1936, 1975 when Ireland was cash strapped, the State was able to BUILD huge swathes of Affordable Public Housing for workers. That all changed with the Celtic Tiger “Tenant Farming” culture whereby everyone in Ireland was told to acquire a portfolio of “starter units” as a pension, paid for by the (rack) rent of their tenants. Basically the same Absentee landlord System operated by the British for 753 years.
    Remarkably, Irish people taught in school about the Famine, tenant slavery, eviction, emigration of our ancestors took to this system like coffin ships to water.
    The core of the deliberstely orchestrated “housing problem” is that there are no LEGISLATED RIGHTS to housing FOR ALL on the Irish Statute books. In 2009 FF scrapped, wiped the one and only Tenant Right from the Constitution because it didn’t suit landlords and developers. That was the 35 year Long Term Equity Lease available through the courts to tenants of 20 years duration.
    Only those who OWN Land and Property have RIGHTS to their home under Fine Gael’s 1949 Land and Property Act. This does not apply to about four fifths of the population who are not property owners, but live in dwellings owned by others. How is this democracy?

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    Mute Roger Bond
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 10:51 AM

    @Paul Newsome: Have you not noticed that there are a million more people living in Ireland since 2009.
    There would be no accommodation crisis if that million didn’t come here..

    29
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    Mute Paul
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 3:21 PM

    The RTB can and does nothing to remove overholding tenants.
    I know this through my own experience where my overholding tenant just simply refused to comply with their determination order.
    Only a Court ordered eviction can remove tenants behaving illegally.

    Which is why no one want to be a landlord any more.
    The left is reaping what it has sowed!

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    Mute Frank O'Reilly
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    Apr 23rd 2023, 10:55 AM

    I look forward to seeing what the RTB do to assist the landlord get the property back.

    21
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