'All citizens must be treated equally'

CORK:THE GOVERNMENT must be prepared to treat all the citizens of the State equally and not give preferential treatment to the wealthy if it wishes to avoid social and industrial unrest, a leading trade union official told thousands of people who attended the Ictu protest in Cork.

Cork Council of Trade Unions president Pat Guilfoyle said that the trade union movement would no longer allow politicians to get away with ignoring the needs and interests of working people in the areas of health, education, social welfare and job creation.

“Our demand to the Government is, if they wish to honour the ideals of this Republic and if they are prepared to treat all of its citizens equally, we are prepared to support them, but if they want social and industrial unrest, then social and industrial unrest they shall have,” he said.

Unions put the attendance at the Cork rally at over 20,000; gardaí put the figure at up to 15,000. The march began at Connolly Hall on Lapp’s Quay at 2.45pm and it took almost 30 minutes before the last of the protesters left the starting point, by which time the first marchers had already made their way well down Patrick Street, over a kilometre away.

Mr Guilfoyle was loudly cheered when he criticised some employers in both the public and private sector for seizing upon the current economic crisis as an “opportunity to bully and scare people into taking cuts in their pay and conditions”.

He got an even louder, more enthusiastic cheer when, quoting Charles Haughey’s speech from 1980 that “we are living beyond our means”, he accused the Government of having learned nothing from the past.

“Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me; the politicians have fooled us once, we will not be fooled again,” said Mr Guilfoyle.

Ictu treasurer and Siptu general secretary Joe O’Flynn said that people had had enough of “the bankers, developers and the super-rich being looked after with taxpayers’ money, while at the same time these people lecture us about the need to tighten our belts”. Mr O’Flynn said that Ictu’s 10-point plan offers a better, fairer way forward, and he cited the examples of France, Germany and the US where governments have focused on stimulating consumer confidence and thereby protecting and creating jobs.