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2009

ANTI-BUDGET PROTEST OUTSIDE THE DÁIL

Date Released: 16 Dec 2009

Hundreds of public service workers, including nurses, teachers and other Government workers protested against budget pay and social welfare cuts outside Leinster House on Tuesday evening (December 15).

Sheila Nunan, General Secretary of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) and a member of the Congress Public Service Committee and David Begg, general secretary of Congress, addressed the protest which took place as the Dáil debated and voted on the harsh €4 billion budget cuts.

Sheila Nunan said that public servants would long remember the 2010 budget in which the Fianna Fáil Green Party government targeted the most vulnerable while the banking and other business interests “triumphed”. David Begg said that the budget was part of a wider attempt to cut wages across the economy including those in the private sector. He criticised finance minister, Brian Lenihan, who last weekend referred to a war against public servants.

“Is it not an extraordinary thing that the Government of the country would declare war on its own public servants?” he said.

Also on the platform was SIPTU General President, Jack O’Connor, who is also President of Congress.

Public Service Workers Protest 16-12-09

Anti-Budget protest outside the Dáil on Tuesday, December 15.
(Picture: Photocall)




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