Thousands protest Ireland's harsh austerity plan - Summary

Sat, 27 Nov 2010

Dublin - Thousands took the streets of Dublin Saturday to protest against the government's austerity budget required for a multi-billion-euro international bailout, to be finalized Sunday.

Public service workers, students and left wing political groups were among the more than 50,000 people who marched through the Irish capital under the banner of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

Jack O'Connor, president of the SIPTU trade union, told the crowd the government's recovery plan and bailout is "about rescuing the people at the top of the banks in France and Germany."

German and France are participating in the European Union- International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout totaling 85 billion duros (114 3 billion dollars), which is expected to be finalized Sunday.

The austerity plan detailed 15 billion euros' (20 billion dollars) worth of cuts and tax increases, 6 billion euros of which are to be implemented in 2011.

ICTU claims the austerity measures will drive the country into poverty.

Ireland was forced to act after its banks ran up huge debts that threatened to derail the government's attempts to borrow on capital markets, posing a threat to the stability of the euro.

Protesters in the rally assembled on the south quays in Dublin city center at midday and walked to the General Post Office (GPO) in the main thoroughfare, O'Connell Street.

The GPO was chosen as its a symbol of Irish sovereignty as it is the site of the Easter Rising in 1916, the rebellion which initiated the process of obtaining Irish independence from Britain.

Irish police said the protest passed peacefully, with no arrests made during the day.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/355455,austerity-plan-summary.html.