Protesters vent their anger outside Leinster House during Budget speech

DEMONSTRATIONS:THE 300 or so demonstrators gathered outside the gates of Leinster House did not need to hear the Budget speech before beginning their protest.

Details of one of the most leaked budgets in history were well-known by the time Brian Lenihan got to his feet in the Dáil.

The drizzle was falling steadily in the grey gloom of a December afternoon as teacher after teacher grabbed the microphone. The teachers were among the few public servants whose working day finished in time to participate in the protests against the Budget.

Brendan O’Sullivan, INTO executive member for north Kildare, denounced the Government, the wealthy, Ibec, the media, the “half-truths” emanating from Joe Duffy’s Liveline RTÉ radio programme, and even the Labour Party, who were capable of “sweet words” but not of wholehearted support for their stance.

He condemned tax exiles and wealthy businessmen who threatened to leave the country if taxes were raised on the wealthy. “And we’re the ones being told that we are holding the country to ransom?” Those who had urged pay cuts on public servants would soon find out about the “economic muscle of 300,000 workers”, he warned.

Compared to recent protests, the mood was sullen rather than angry, and the crowd was a fraction of that expected given the swingeing nature of the cuts in public service pay and welfare entitlements in the Budget.

People Before Profit, the republican campaign group Éirígí, the Socialist Party and Shell-to-Sea were among those expected, but about half of those present were public servants, mostly from INTO, the CPSU and Impact.

Teacher Greg Kerr said the low-key nature of yesterday’s Budget protests did not reflect the depth of anger about public service cuts. He said a meeting of the INTO north Dublin branch which attracted 150 teachers on Tuesday night was more indicative of their mood. “This might be small, but 250,000 were on strike just two weeks ago. That was the potential we had and that is the potential we still have,” he said hopefully. “I’d love to think there were tens of thousands here today. There aren’t, but what we have, we have, and we build on it.”

It was then the turn of Richard Boyd-Barrett to lead the crowd in chants of “Tax the greedy, not the needy”; “They say cutbacks, we say fightback” and “Brian Cowen, can you hear, we don’t want your cutbacks here”. He promised “relentless, continuous demonstrations” and a “winter of discontent” starting with more protests on Saturday. If this is as bad as it gets for the Government, it will consider itself fortunate.