‘We cannot afford to take any cuts’
“What are those people doing standing there?” he asked his dad while pointing to a gang of placard-waving public servants gathered outside one of the many picketed Government departments.
His father’s response was without pause but dripping with vitriol. “They are supposed to be doing a day’s work but they’ve decided all the thousands they are gettin’ isn’t enough.”
It was the kind of Marmite ‘love it or loathe it’ response which typified the feelings for the public service in Dublin yesterday. Onlookers to the strikes would either cheerfully beep horns or go over to commiserate with the protesting teachers, nurses and civil servants or else would mutter barely decipherable comments such as ‘jobs for life’.
At Temple Street Children’s Hospital, more than 60 clerical, nursing and service staff marched in front of the hospital doors. “I have a mortgage to pay and I am here because I can’t afford to lose any more from my wage packet,” said one porter.
Around the corner at An Bord Pleanála’s headquarters the gathering, while much smaller, was no less determined. “We have already had to endure the pension levy,” said one protesting worker. “We are going to get another big hit in the budget and it is going to cripple.”
Martin Donohoe, a national teacher in the northside of Dublin, was one of up to 5,000 Irish National Teachers’ organisation members who gathered in front of the Department of Education. “My wife and I work in the public service and we have both been hit by the pension levy and the income levy,” he said. “We basically cannot afford to take any cuts.”
Teaching principal Nora Hamill agreed. “I work hard and I felt I was getting a fair salary for the work I do. We see the high earners not paying extra taxes. Why are they (the Government) so against a third rate of tax? I hope it is not a case of protecting friends.”
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