Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore’s visit to the city today will be greeted by the United Left Alliance Galway, who will be protesting against the Government’s austerity measures and the €1.25 billion payout to the dead bank Anglo.
The protest takes place at 7.30pm this evening at the main entrance to the Radisson Blu Hotel on the Fairgreen Road, where Dep Gilmore will address the North and West regional organisation of the Labour Party.
ULA branch secretary Conor McGuinness said The Labour Party has “lost all credibility”.
“Before the election Eamon Gilmore stated it would be ‘Frankfurt’s way or Labour’s way’. To date it seems to have been all Frankfurt’s way,” he said. “The IMF, ECB and EU have demanded cut after cut, and the Labour Party has jumped at every opportunity to please its masters in Brussels, Frankfurt, and Fine Gael HQ.”
Mr McGuinness said Labour ’s support for and implementation of cuts to special needs assistants and education, decreased local authority funding, less social spending, and less supports for the old and vulnerable, as well as supporting the payout of almost €9 billion to unsecured bondholders, showed they “have turned their back on the legacy of James Connolly and Jim Larkin” and “on the people they are supposed to represent”.
Mr McGuinness said that those “hit by Budget 2012 and angered by the recent €1.25 billion payout to unsecured bondholders” are urged to take part in the protest.
