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Royal Navy set to house sailors on Bibby Stockholm-style barge in bid to cut costs

Royal Navy set to house sailors on Bibby Stockholm-style barge in bid to cut costs

The Irish Sun5 days ago
THE Royal Navy is set to house sailors on a barge like the Bibby Stockholm in a bid to save cash.
Top brass leased a 100-room 'floatel' months after Labour axed a deal with
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The Royal Navy is set to house sailors on the Sans Vitesse barge
Credit: Alamy
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Top brass leased the 100-room 'floatel' months after Labour axed a deal with Bibby Stockholm claiming it was not fit for people
Credit: Alamy
The crew of flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth are moving to the Sans Vitesse barge when the ship goes in to dock for repairs.
Labour had slammed the Bibby as a 'miserable and dangerous prison ship'.
MPs warned conditions could breach migrants' human rights and it was decommissioned in November.
Critics slammed the move over Dutch-flagged Sans Vitesse in Rosyth, Fife, as 'terrible'.
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The MoD said: 'Ministers have asked for other options.
"We will ensure accommodation is suitable.'
A source said: 'This is the most economical option.
'It means the sailors on watch can live right next to HMS Queen Elizabeth, so there is no commuting, and the chefs can still work as chefs in the galley of the Sans Vitesse, so they remain gainfully employed.'
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Life inside the Bibby Stockholm- Migrant films conditions as some of the first to board the barge describe it as 'like Alcatraz prison'
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Labour bill seeks to ban Central Bank from approving Israeli war bond sales
Labour bill seeks to ban Central Bank from approving Israeli war bond sales

Irish Examiner

time9 hours ago

  • Irish Examiner

Labour bill seeks to ban Central Bank from approving Israeli war bond sales

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Ireland needs immigrants. And an economic plan to accommodate them
Ireland needs immigrants. And an economic plan to accommodate them

Irish Times

time3 days ago

  • Irish Times

Ireland needs immigrants. And an economic plan to accommodate them

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Middle-class or richer people often see immigration as complementary in the sense that immigrants make richer people's lives easier and cheaper – be it better barbers and private medical consultants, restaurants or faster parcel delivery services. These may sound trite, but it all adds up. We see this class divide borne out in anti-immigration rallies. From a macroeconomic perspective, more people competing for jobs that are paid less will reduce wages at the lower end, while more people looking for cheaper homes in less expensive areas will drive up rents and house prices, reducing already fragile incomes. But it is not as simple as one group versus another; nor is it the case that if one group wins the other loses. Immigration figures include returning Irish citizens. Ireland has been open to new arrivals for a long time. From 1995 to 2015, the total numbers of immigrants into Ireland was 1,178,900, including returning Irish people. That's a lot of families, without whom the economy would not have expanded so rapidly; but that growth was over 20 years. Since then, immigration has risen more dramatically. For example, from April 2022 to April 2023, Ireland took in approximately 141,600 immigrants, which is a 16-year high and a 31 per cent increase from the previous year . This period also includes a significant number of asylum seekers and Ukrainians fleeing war. To put these figures into perspective, if we continued at a rate of 141,600 immigrants a year for the next 20 years, we would end up with a population of 7,922,263. That is 900,000 beyond the Central Statistics Office's most ambitious population forecast – and that's before taking into account the natural increase in population. So how many people is too many? If this country were well run, this question might be reasonably easy to answer. 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The young pay the price for the dysfunctional system in which no part of the State seems to be working effectively with the others: the Department of Justice , the Department of Housing , the planners and the Department of Transport . All the while, the IDA is tasked with getting more and more investment into the country, demanding more and more skilled people, many of whom must be imported, who put yet more pressure on the system. Meanwhile younger Irish people leave. In the real world, beyond Government Buildings, only 30,330 homes were completed in 2024, well below the trajectory needed to meet the Government's pledge of 300,000 new homes by 2030. In the first quarter of 2025, there were just 5,938 new houses built, a 2 per cent increase year-on-year, but still way below the annual target of 41,000 (far below the figure of 60,000 that I believe is a more accurate reflection of our need based on demographics). [ Central Bank 'surprised' by lack of progress in building homes Opens in new window ] In contrast, in the 12 months to April 2024, 149,200 immigrants came into the country, outnumbering 69,900 who left. This marked a 17-year high in immigration and the third successive year in which more than 100,000 immigrants entered the State. Of the people who came to the country, 30,000 (20 per cent) were returning Irish, 27,000 (18 per cent) were from the EU, 5,400 (4 per cent) were British and 58 per cent of all immigrants – 86,600 – came from the rest of the world. This final group is the only group over which the State has legal border control and this is where that adult conversation must begin. [ Mark O'Connell: The housing crisis could erode Ireland's middle class to a point of collapse Opens in new window ] How many people is practical? 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Transfer news LIVE: Henderson to JOIN Brentford, Spurs ANNOUNCE Kudus and close in on Gibbs-White deal
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The Irish Sun

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  • The Irish Sun

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SunSport understands Ritchie has interest from several other Championship clubs. Copy link Copied 1 …

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