One of the largest demonstrations in the Irish Republic’s history brought more than 100,000 people onto Dublin’s streets on Saturday in protest over the international bailout and four years of austerity ahead.
As European officials thrashed out the finer details of an 85 billion euro (US$112.7 billion) rescue package that was set to be rubber-stamped by European finance ministers yesterday, huge crowds braved freezing temperatures to gather in central Dublin to demonstrate against the cuts aimed at driving down Ireland’s colossal national debt.
The main march to O’Connell Street passed off peacefully, but there was an uneasy stand-off on Saturday night outside the Dail, Ireland’s parliament, as two lines of Garda Siochana officers hemmed in about 100 left-wing demonstrators, who had broken away from the trades-unions organized protest.
Photo: Reuters
Fireworks were thrown at officers, who were guarding the gates of the Dail, as the protesters shouted: “Burn it down, burn it down.”
Extra Garda units were rushed to the scene to surround the ad hoc demonstration by an amalgam of left-wing and anarchist groups, who also set fire to a picture of Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Brian Cowen.
Among those on the main march there was deep anger that most of the 85 billion euros from the EU and the IMF will be used to shore up Ireland’s ailing banks.
Builder Mick Wallace, who has had to lay off 100 of his workers because of the crash in the construction industry, said it was time the Irish became more militant.
“We are far too quiet. We should be more like the French and get onto the streets more often because our politicians go over to Europe and tell the EU that our people do not demonstrate, they don’t take to the streets. It’s time we changed that and openly opposed what is going on,” he said.
77-year-old Jimmy Purdy, from Dublin’s Ringsend area, was at the demonstration outside Dublin’s General Post Office — the scene of the 1916 Easter Rising.
“I have lived through three recessions and I think this could be the worst one yet,” he said.
“I’m here because I’m angry that the EU are telling us to cut euros off the minimum wage and boss Irish workers around, while the people that caused this crisis get off scot-free,” Purdy said.
As the protesters took to the streets, sources said negotiators were keen to announce a rescue deal in time for the opening of financial markets today.
The UK’s share of the bailout was likely to be close to ￡10 billion (US$15.6 billion), although London insiders say the money will not add to the British Treasury’s budget deficit; instead a bilateral loan to Ireland will be treated as a “financial transaction,” similar to an investment.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was expected to hold talks with his European counterparts yesterday. The Irish government was likely to get a loan contingency of about 50 billion euros and a further 35 billion euros will be extended to support the country’s ailing banks.
“It will be a long-term facility offering the Irish the opportunity to draw down funds over a number of years,” said a source close to the negotiations.
The money will be provided through a variety of routes. A chunk of it will be from the IMF, a further sum from a eurozone fund and from a Europe-wide stability mechanism, plus bilateral lines of credit offered by the UK and Sweden.
However, there were objections in Dublin at the prospect of a punitive interest rate. Ireland’s RTE broadcaster reported that the country may have to pay a rate as high as 6.7 percent on some of the money, a price described as “very disturbing” by opposition finance spokesman Michael Noonan.
“This rate is far too high and is unaffordable on any reasonable projection of growth,” Noonan told the Irish Independent.
A diplomatic source said that the rate would be lower than 6.7 percent, but above the 5.2 percent paid by Greece for its 145 billion euro bailout.
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