About 300 people marched through the centre of Dublin today calling on the Government to tackle unemployment and stem the tide of young people emigrating from Ireland.
The Reclaim the City festival focused on jobless figures and criticised the Government over what organisers claim has been an inadequate solution to a “demoralising situation for Ireland’s youth.”
The festival, organised by the Right To Work Campaign, began with a protest march through the city to the Central Bank in Temple Bar where speakers and a band entertained the crowd.
Protesters chanted slogans denouncing cutbacks and waved anti-Government placards. “We want jobs, not Anglo bailouts,” read some of the slogans.
Cllr Richard Boyd-Barrett of People Before Profit told marchers there was huge anger among young people over the lack of jobs and high emigration rates, while Sinn Féin councillor Dessie Ellis called for greater Government action to get people back into the workforce.
James Toole, one of the march organisers, said the event was aimed at highlighting the situation facing young Irish people.
“We’re aiming to highlight the issue facing a large number of 18 to 24-year-olds in the country that are finding themselves in this demoralising situation of having no prospects of working in the near future,” he said.
The latest figures show almost 92,000 people under the age of 25 are unemployed, while an estimated 70,000 young people have emigrated Ireland in the last year.