PROTESTORS WERE RELATIVELY thin on the ground outside the Dáil this afternoon.
As Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin were announcing the details of Budget 2015, a small but vocal group had gathered outside Leinster House.
Unsurprisingly, the main issue people were protesting was water charges.
Nell Buggy from ‘Laois Says No’ said she was “absolutely” certain that water charges would be abolished following Saturday’s massive rally in Dublin.
“We have spoken, we have come out in our droves … We abolished the charge in 1996 and we are here to say that we are going to do it again.”
Elaine Robbins from Tallaght is also anti-water charges. She said that new TD Paul Murphy is “the only [politician] asking the right questions” about the charges.
“Even Sinn Féin dropped the ball when Mary Lou McDonald and Gerry Adams said they were going to pay water charges … Cathal King lost [the Dublin South-West by-election] because of it.”
Joan Ward, a supporter of new Roscommon-South Leitrim TD Michael Fitzmaurice described the tax relief of about €100 per household on their water bill and other related subsidies announced in the Budget as “a token gesture after what happened over the weekend”.
Another Fitzmaurice supporter present was Dermot Moran from East Galway.
“Michael Fitzmaurice, just as Ming Flanagan was, will be a voice for turf cutters. Now that Ming has gone to Europe he will bring the voice our there as well. He’s ready to speak to preserve our cultures and our rights in rural Ireland – we’ve always been entitled to cut out turf.”
Darren Corrigan was outside the Dáil to support Paul Murphy. He is the branch secretary of the Socialist Workers Party in Clondalkin.
Corrigan said he was dressed like Che Guevara because it’s “time for a revolution”.
“I’m a very big supporter of anyone that’s from the left … I know there’s only a few of them in [the Dáil] but it’s going to grow bit by bit. Finally we’ll have a left Government in the country – and not Labour who are a wolf in sheep’s clothes.
“I want a wealth tax, I want a mansion tax, I want a luxury goods tax. I want any tax possible put on the wealthy in this country so that it’s more fair for the working class.”
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