Anti-austerity campaigners walk to the Dáil

Four anti-austerity crusaders yesterday set off on foot from Limerick to the Dáil to highlight a new political movement, Slí Níos Fearr (A Better Way).

Martin Critten, 55, who lives in Kildimo, Limerick; Pat Hannon, 51, also from Limerick; 28-year-old Peter O’Loughlin, from Douglas, Cork; and Dutch-born Zinaida Nourreddine, 57, hope to reach the gates of the Dáil in nine days’ time.

“When I first came here 30 years ago to work as a secretary in the Dutch embassy, there was huge unemployment,” said Ms Nourreddine.

“I returned some years ago to find this horrendous cycle of unemployment has returned. I hope by this walk we can get people to focus on the fact they have choices in how the situation is to be handled and how money is to be saved.”