The trade union movement is to organise demonstrations in support of a restructuring of the country’s debt burden early next year.
The executive council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions today backed proposals to hold a series of rallies in locations around the country on Saturday February 9th.
Congress is seeking a restructuring of Ireland’s debt burden as “a prerequisite for recovery and a necessary condition for the maintenance of social cohesion.”
The demonstrations are to be held in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Sligo, Limerick and Waterford and are timed to coincide with EU Council of Ministers’ meetings.
“We need to send a very clear and very unambiguous message to Europe: without a serious and significant deal on our debt, there is no prospect whatsoever of a recovery in Ireland. It is as simple and clear as that," said congress general secretary David Begg.
“This is not just about the Anglo promissory note repayment, although we welcome recent Government statements on that problem. Rather, this is about the far bigger burden of some €64 billion of private debt from Irish banks that was transferred - without consultation – onto the shoulders of the Irish people, by order of the European authorities. That unjust burden condemns Ireland to a permanent ‘austerity treadmill’ with no hope of growth or jobs.
“We have already extracted some €28 billion from the economy and made barely an impression on the deficit. The debt is the elephant in the room.”