Tens of thousands of workers take to streets

THE Government dropped plans to increase taxes on the rich and powerful because of their “huge influence”, the country’s most senior union leader has claimed.

David Begg was speaking as tens of thousands of workers took to the streets in eight locations across the country for a “national day of protest” against Government budgetary policy.

But Tánaiste Mary Coughlan bluntly warned the unions that they would have to demonstrate a “seismic change in attitudes” and accept the Government’s plan to cut the public service pay and pension bill by €1.3bn.

The unions now had the opportunity to provide alternative ways of achieving that reduction without cutting core pay, she indicated. If they failed to engage constructively and provide such alternatives, the Government would make the decisions itself, she warned.

“If people are not prepared to do that, at the end of the day, the Government is going to have to make a decision,” Ms Coughlan said. “My view is that everyone is going to have to take a reduction in their standard of living and in their income until such times as we get ourselves back into a growth situation. The people in the private sector have done this — many of them.”

Organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the day of protest saw an estimated 40,000 march in Dublin, 15,000 in Cork, 10,000 in Limerick, 9,000 in Waterford, 6,000 in Galway, 5,000 in Sligo, 2,000 in Dundalk and 1,500 in the Taoiseach’s local town of Tullamore.

Addressing the Dublin protest, ICTU general secretary Mr Begg said “something funny” was going on.

Last April, the Government announced it would seek €4bn of savings in December’s budget through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, he pointed out.

But in recent weeks, the Taoiseach and Finance Minister had made clear the bulk of the savings would now have to come from spending cuts. The original plan from April had simply “ceased to exist”, Mr Begg said.

“It was dropped without comment or complaint. And that is a testament to the huge influence of the rich and powerful in this country. They knew the taxes were for them [and] they saw them off,” he added.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor said that while there was a divide in Irish society, it was not between private and public sector workers.

Instead, it was between the “ordinary workers” being made to bear the pain of the recession and the “5% who own 40% of the wealth who are determined they will contribute nothing”.

Similar messages were delivered to the other ICTU-organised rallies around the country, in what was seen as the opening shot of a winter of industrial discontent.

Many speakers and protestors attached the National Asset Management Agency [NAMA] plan, saying it represented a €54bn bailout for the banks and “chancers” who had ruined the economy.

But business groups criticised the protests. Chambers Ireland said such a show of union militancy would “do nothing to restore international confidence” in the Irish economy, while IBEC criticised the unions for failing to put forward a realistic “strategy to protect jobs”.

Health Minister Mary Harney, while supporting the right of people to protest, said the country was facing huge challenges.

“Marching won’t reduce those challenges,” she said. “All of us should work together, hopefully in the national interest.”