Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Cowen tells public to embrace public service cuts

NAMA is being set up by the government to take over risky loans from the commercial banks.

McCarrick said, “Everybody sees that the government is putting €54 ($80.82) billion into NAMA, and there is no money for job creation. The Congress of Trade Unions looked for €1 ($1.49) billion to protect jobs and create jobs and what did we get? We got €250 ($375) million offered.”

He claimed the demos around Ireland were the start of the road towards forcing the government to change its policies to squeeze workers.

There were more cheers when he said, “Tax the rich. So what if they leave Ireland? It will surely be a better place without them. We did not create the mess that we’re in today. The bankers did that.”

Across the nation, public and private sector workers walked side-by-side. Teachers, plasterers, firemen and students were adamant that employers and the government would not succeed in creating a divide between those paid by the taxpayer and those who are not. The real fight, they said, was between the rich and the poor.

One private-sector worker, Declan Ryan from Malahide, Co. Dublin, said that most days he walks the streets of Dublin city center, coaxing tourists to make their way to the wax museum.

The 22-year-old graduated from college having studied film and literature. But little work in the film industry meant that he was glad to take the job as the town crier for the wax museum.

He told the Irish Independent, “I am paying enough tax already, so why should we have to pay more when politicians and the wealthy pay very little?

 “We seem to be voting in the same people again and again and nothing is changing. The problems we are facing now are the same problems as we have had before. For me, the film industry is always the first to get the chop. I’m just glad to be where I am.”

  He said the real divide was not between public and private sector workers but between the wealthy and the working class.

​
Nster.com